LAHORE: Federal Board of Revenue has served warning notices to more than 70 top cigarette retailers across the country for selling smuggled cigarettes, sources said.
They added notices were served to retailers located in Faisalabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Sargodha; and similar drives have been launched in Lahore and Karachi as well, with plans to extend the initiative to other cities.
Sources said these cigarettes are being smuggled from Afghanistan through porous western borders of Pakistan without paying duties and taxes and also without any kind of health warning, making them conspicuously visible in retail outlets for law enforcement officials to take notice of.
In the absence of paying the due taxes, these smuggled cigarettes offer huge profit margins to retailers and wholesalers, providing them a lucrative incentive to get involved in the heinous crime of smuggling and sale of smuggled goods, the sources added.
