KARACHI
According to the instructions of Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad and on the orders of Director General Customs Intelligence Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, the crackdown against cigarette smugglers was intensified.
Customs Intelligence has seized smuggled cigarettes worth Rs 303 million during nationwide operations in the last ten days. The largest operation was carried out in Balochistan, where Customs Intelligence seized 4,280,000 cigarettes of foreign brands worth Rs 114.2 million. While in Sindh province, as a result of eight operations, 1,420,700 cigarettes of top brands worth Rs. 69.7 million were confiscated.
Similarly, during intelligence-based operations in Punjab, the Customs Intelligence team recovered 1,294,000 smuggled cigarettes worth Rs 75.3 million. Similarly, PK Customs Intelligence seized 1,155,000 smuggled cigarettes worth Rs 43.9 million. A total of 8,149,700 smuggled cigarettes worth 303 million have been seized by the Customs Intelligence during the last ten days. This brings the total number of seizures of smuggled cigarettes by Customs Intelligence to 33,994,850 in the current financial year 2022-23 with a value of 1,324 million.
Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad and Director General Customs Intelligence Faiz Ahmad Chadhar while appreciating the efforts of Customs Intelligence Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Gwadar, Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, expressed the fact that despite the shortfall of human resources and logistics, Customs Intelligence is effectively making efforts to combat smuggling in general and smuggling of contraband cigarettes in particular.
