LAHORE: The Customs top officials should immediately take notice of the elements involved in green, yellow, red channels and transshipment smuggling which is inflicting huge losses to the tune of billions of rupees to the national kitty.
The top officials of the Customs department are keeping mum at every mega scam about TP, green, yellow and red channels, which is a criminal silence on their part.
These views were expressed by LCCI Import and Customs Affairs Standing Committee Chairman Rashid Bhatti while exclusively talking to Customs Today here the other day.
He said that in various sections of the newspapers Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad and his compliance have been pointed out and found involved in billions of rupees corruption, but none of the top officials have held him questionable.
He said that earlier there have been reports that smugglers are misusing TP facility by replacing high quality of goods with the low quality and evading legal duty and taxes and the top officials have deliberately avoided taking action against the corrupt elements instead there information that they are being pampered and ensured support.
He said that the latest scam in the highlight is miss use of bounded goods at the godowns by the owners of the godown who have been awarded licenses.
It is being said that the smugglers in connivance with the customs officials of Port Qasim and Karachi Port were involved in receiving graft for allowing the smugglers replace high quality of items with low quality thereby evading huge some duty and taxes.
Such practices are causing huge losses to the national kitty at the cost of destruction of the legal business, Arshad Bhatti said, adding that such practice should immediately be stopped and the elements involved should be brought to book.
“If the practices go notices they would certainly harm the economic health of the whole country and the responsible would be the top officials of the Customs department who are deliberately not taking notice for the reasons not known,” Bhatti said.
He urged FBR Chairman Tariq Pasha and Member Customs Muhammad Zahid Khokhar to take stern notice lest situation gets aggravated. These are the horrible stories how the people at the helm of the affairs are destroying the systems and there is no one to question them, he concluded, adding that that the all the black sheep should be made an example by awarding them punishment.
