MULTAN: Renowned lawyer and ex-general secretary of Multan Tax Bar Association (MTBA) Imran Ghazi said that illegal clearance of contraband items with connivance of corrupt officials like Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad is a big question mark on integrity of whole customs department and government must take stern action against him to protect national economy.
He said smuggling harms the economy of a country in several ways. It undermines the local industry, discourages legal imports and reduces the volume of revenues collected from duties and levies by the government. Unfortunately, a parallel underground economy, through smuggling, has taken roots in whole Pakistan which causes huge loss to national exchequer. He supposed that illegal clearance of contraband items cannot be done without connivance of corrupt officials like Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad and everyone is aware of it but no action is being taken to protect national economy.
He said that Pakistan is facing huge challenges of measuring and countering enormous revenue leakages through smuggling and according to certain reports, its size is estimated to be three times the regular economy. It showed the alarming rate of smuggling and its impact on the economy.
He alleged that major proportion of the revenue to be collected by the federal government is being lost due to corruption of Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad and it also created adverse impacts on the local industry.
He said smuggling has assumed an alarming proportion due to corruption of Dost Muhammad and turned out to be a parallel economy, which is depriving the country of its rightful levies including excise and customs duty worth hundreds of billions of rupees. Thousands of industrial units have been rendered sick in South Punjab due to easy availability of smuggled goods in open markets.
He added that smuggling has now become a routine part of all economic activities in Pakistan and hardly raises any fear of the law enforcement agency due to involvement of corrupt customs officials like Dost Muhammad.
He said that bed eggs among them are more concerned with lining their own pockets than checking smuggling activities, thereby denying the government its much-needed revenue.
After revealing corruption of Dost Muhammad it should be treated as a wake-up call to address systemic complications which provide them opportunity for smuggling. Government should seriously look into the problem with a view to formulating better policies to redress the situation and eliminate corruption from customs.
He thought that inability of Customs and law enforcement agency to adequately check smuggling into country can undermine both national and economic security of the country. He suggested that it is a big opportunity for us in line with the law to set example against corruption by conducting fair trial against the accused. He said that anybody gone contrary to the law in the course of doing their job will be brought to justice.
