LAHORE: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to bring policy reforms, decreasing the import duties on different goods in order to curb smuggling in the country, sources said.
The sources said that the committee with Senator Saleem H Mandviwala in the chair directed the FBR to specifically look into the matter of smuggling of petroleum products and plastic from Iran and other huge material from Afghanistan border.
“According to a World Bank report, during last nine years Pakistan had to bear loss of $24 billion by smuggling only through Afghan Transit Trade,” Senator Saleem Mandviwala was quoted as saying.
Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Tariq Bajwa informed the committee that although it was really difficult to check a long and hard 2500 kilometer long border line, but still the government was initiating a number of measures to reduce smuggling.
He said an agreement signed with the Afghanistan government in order to ensure payment of duties on all goods being transported to and from Pakistan. He said the implementation on the agreement would be started by January 2016.
On the issue of Iranian oil being smuggled to Pakistan, Tariq Bajwa said despite limited resources the customs managed to arrest 130 smugglers during last one and half year and seized nine million liter of Iranian petrol.
