ISLAMABAD: Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) Director-General Zahid Kokhar has said that the PDMA provided disinfecting spray facility to make the building of Directorate of Islamabad and Lahore virus-proof.
Talking with Customs Today during an exclusive interview, the Director General I&I (Intelligence and Investigation) said that it is important to make all possible preventive measures against the infectious pandemic of COVID19, adding that he directed all the staff members to attend office wearing masks and gloves as well as using sanitizers during working hours so safety could be ensured.
He said that on his request Chairman PDMA (Pakistan disaster management authority) Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal provided disinfecting spray facility to make the building virus-proof, adding that all other offices of I&I throughout the country would be sprayed soon by PDMA to make them disinfected.
Answering a query about Torkham scandal, the DG I&I said that in order to check misuse of exemption on account of import of apples, the Afghan authorities were forwarded to ascertain their veracity. In course of this verification process, the certificates of origin furnished against 541 consignments cleared from customs station Torkham during the period from 1-7-2019 to 31-10-2019 were forwarded to afghan authorities. The Afghan authorities confirmed to Pak embassy in Kabul that the certificates of origin in respect of 378 consignments were found fake.
He said that imports of edible goods from Afghanistan are exempt from tax collection whereas in case of importing from other countries the importers had to pay 17 percent per kilogram as duty on their imports to Pakistan including the apples from Iran. Now the certificates of origin in case of 378 consignments related to apple were sent out to Afghanistan for verification/authentication but now afghan authorities declared majority of these certificates of four months period as fake.
Answering another query he said that Customs SWHs (state ware houses) should be devitalized and must be monitored through CTTV cameras, so activity of SWHs could be monitored and archived.
DG Zahid Kokhar said that Customs Intelligence Peshawar Director and his team made a very helpful software called “anti smuggling software,” this software was provided to all the Directorates and Collectorates under direction of FBR (federal board of revenue) but it is still not fully functional. The Directorates and Collectorates should implement this software for registering anti smuggling activities, so the profiling of smugglers and smuggled items as well as vehicles used for carrying goods along with smugglers could be maintained.
He said that during unusual situations like currently pandemic COVID19 the notorious elements tried to get advantage but on his direction vigilance has been tightened and he observed that Anti smuggling squads of Customs I&I are seizing smuggled goods and NDP (non duty paid) vehicles on daily basis.
One case of COVID19 was registered in Directorate of Lahore I&I office where he ordered to conduct tests of all other officials and officers. The tests were conducted and test reports showed that all other staff members were safe by Coronavirus with negative reports, the DG concluded.
