MULTAN: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will assess Pakistan Customs progress on Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan through domestic and international cooperation for currency seizures and mutual legal assistance.
The Federal Board of Revenue has directed Chief Collector of Centre Region, Chief Collector of Customs (Enforcement South) Karachi, Chief Collectors of Customs (Enforcement) Quetta and Chief Collector of Customs (North) Islamabad to assess progress of customs on domestic and international seizures.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action plan assessor highlighted one of the most important areas was negligible use of domestic/international cooperation for identification of cash couriers and for enforcing controls on illicit movement of currency.
The Customs Collectorate of Multan has been requested to provide information to counterparts for intelligence, investigations and prosecutions.
The field formations of Customs have been requested vide letters C.No.2 (I) IC/2019/54302-R dated 18/04/2019 and C.No.2 (I) IC/2019/59882-R dated 30/04/2019 to write to the secretary (international customs), FBR Islamabad for communicating with the partner couriers to exchange information in matters pertaining to identify cash couriers and enforce controls on illicit movement of domestic and international currency in order to demonstrate that Pakistan Customs is effectively pursuing international cooperation.
The field formations of Multan Customs were requested to send mutual legal assistance MLA requests along with other Collectorates in the major currency seizures made within their jurisdiction on urgent basis.
The Collectorate of Customs has been asked to inform about different initiatives taken for improving domestic inter-agency cooperation for information/intelligence sharing and collaborative actions especially in the areas of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) activities such as national task force working groups at airports, etc.
It is therefore imperative that efficiency of these mechanisms for inter-agency cooperation shall be exhibited before the FATF assessors for proper appreciation of the onground situation.
The Collectorate of Customs has been asked to provide one or two case studies exhibiting domestic cooperation in detection, interception, investigation and prosecution in currency seizure cases.
