ISLAMABAD: Under the guidance of FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad and the direct supervision of Customs Intelligence Director General Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, the Customs Intelligence department has successfully seized smuggled cigarettes worth Rs303 million in the past ten days through their operations conducted nationwide.
The largest seizure was made in Balochistan, where Customs Intelligence confiscated 4,280,000 sticks of foreign cigarette brands with a value of Rs114.2 million. In the province of Sindh, eight operations resulted in the seizure of 1,420,700 sticks of high-end cigarette brands worth Rs69.7 million. Similarly, in Punjab, the Customs Intelligence team seized 1,294,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valued at Rs. 75.3 million through intelligence-based operations. Likewise, the KP Customs Intelligence confiscated 1,155,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valued at Rs43.9 million.
In total, over the last ten days, Customs Intelligence has seized 8,149,700 sticks of smuggled cigarettes amounting to Rs. 303 million. This brings the total tally of cigarette seizures by Customs Intelligence in the current fiscal year 2022-23 to 33,994,850 sticks worth Rs1,324 million.
In recent developments, Customs Intelligence Karachi confiscated 250,000 sticks of foreign brand cigarettes valued at Rs. 10 million in the early hours of Wednesday. Additionally, another raid led to the confiscation of 400,000 cigarette sticks of foreign brands from the Saddr area of Karachi, with a market value of Rs. 25 million. Similarly, seizures in Multan and Dera Ismail Khan yielded 4,000 sticks worth Rs. 4 million and 1,050,000 sticks valued at Rs. 30 million, respectively.
Overall, within the past 24 hours, Customs Intelligence has seized 1,780,000 sticks of foreign brand cigarettes, including Pine Mini, Dunhill, Benson & Hedges, Inhale, Speed Blue, and Royal Business, with a total value of Rs79 million.
The Customs Intelligence department remains committed to eliminating the issue of cigarette smuggling. Despite limited resources, they have managed to confiscate a total of 39,187,000 sticks of cigarettes worth a combined Rs1.093 billion during the ongoing financial year 2022-23.
FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad and Customs Intelligence Director General Faiz Ahmad Chadhar praised the efforts of Customs Intelligence in Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Gwadar, Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar. They acknowledged that despite facing challenges in terms of human resources and logistics, Customs Intelligence is effectively working towards eradicating smuggling in general, with a specific focus on smuggled cigarettes.
