LAHORE: The Directorate of Customs Intelligence & Investigation (I&I), Regional Office, Lahore, under the able leadership of Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, Director General, has revamped its anti-smuggling and enforcement drive in the region by adopting a multi-pronged strategy based on efficient utilization of organizational limited resources in combating smuggling and ensuring legitimate collection of revenue to the government exchequer.
The new team headed by Ms. Saima Shahzad, Director and led in the field by Ch. Rizwan Bashir Kaliar, Additional Director, has vowed to improve Directorate’s performance considerably in the succeeding months.
During the DG’s recent visit to the Regional office Lahore, different factors were meticulously discussed to improve Directorate’s strategy for the CFY by consolidating its strengths and adding new factors in tapping things better.
Anti-Smuggling Organization (ASO) of the Directorate has successfully registered 47 seizures during the month of September, 2022 amounting to value of Rs354.3 million which is 15.1 % higher in comparison to the value of seizures registered during the preceding month.
ASO wings of Directorate (Lahore & Gujranwala) have framed seizures of different commodities including 29,064-Kgs Fabric worth Rs65.8 million, 10 NCP Vehicles (Mercedes Benz 2009, Audi Car 2009, Toyota Crown Car 2005, Land Cruiser Prado etc) worth Rs. 49.5 million, 14 carrier vehicles worth Rs 57 million, 2,060-Nos. Tyres worth Rs32.1 million, F/O 43,800-Kgs Scrap worth Rs 3 Million, Electronics worth Rs. 15 Million, smuggled Cigarettes worth Rs. 10 Million, 1026- Kgs, Walnuts worth Rs. 5 Million, 6,000-Kgs Paraffin Wax worth 6 Million, 4750-Kgs Skimmed, Milk worth 4.2 Million, 2,240-Kgs Betel Nuts worth Rs3.8 million and various Misc. goods i.e. Iranian shopping bags, Black Tea, Cumin Seed, Auto Parts Garments, Artificial Jewelry, Glue =sticks etc. worth 88.5 Million.
Enforcement Branch of the Directorate, on the other hand has framed 5 contraventions against evasion of 54.9 Million duty/taxes involving CIF value of PKR 239.1 Million during September 2022, marking an increase of 900% as compared to duty/taxes evaded in the preceding month.
The Directorate through its administrative actions has improved the monitoring of its functional jurisdictions to safeguard any leakage of legitimate government revenue by taking prompt actions against the evasion of duty/taxes leviable.
Investigation & Prosecution (I&P) Branch of the Directorate has arrested notorious smuggler
Nabi Bakhsh on September 30th 2022, who is one of the ring leaders operating the network of smuggling in the region. Due to untiring efforts on prosecution side, the aforesaid accused is taken into Directorate’s custody on physical remand to investigate the FIRs registered against him on account of smuggling. It is also worth mentioning that dedicated efforts are underway to arrest the other culprits involved and to further complete the pending investigations. (I&I) Customs, Regional Office Lahore has successfully picked up its performance in the month of September, as compared to seizures amounting 224 Million in July and 307 Million in August, 2022, due to keen interest and support of DG (I&I) in following “Zero-Tolerance Policy” against smuggling and “Objective-Monitoring” of tax evasion practices in the Directorate’s territorial and functional jurisdictions respectively.
