MULTAN: Collectorate of Customs Preventive Anti-Smuggling Organization (ASO) recovered Rs4.5 million of non-customs paid light traffic vehicles (LTV) tyres in successful raids at the private warehouse.
Collector Multan Customs Muhammad Saleem has intensified the crackdown against smuggled goods under the special directions of Chief Collector Enforcement Zeba Hai Azhar to curtail smuggling in the South Punjab and anti-smuggling squad has stepped up its efforts in the jurisdiction.
It is also reliably learnt here that Chief Collector has unified anti-smuggling strategy with Collectorate of Customs Preventive to curb menace of smuggling in the South Punjab and Anti-Smuggling Organization has also accelerated crackdown in the territory for curbing menace of smuggled goods after clear directions from Chief Collector.
Multan Customs Preventive received secret information from reliable source that huge quantities of smuggled tyres were dumped in the private warehouse in Multan City.Deputy Collector Maqbool Ahmad Baloch formed special team which comprised of Inspector Abdul Samad and other staff of Dera Ghazi Khan Squad to take stern action against them.
Multan Customs obtained search warrants from local magistrate to seek permission for the inspection of said warehouses located in the Chowk Kumhara wala. Multan Customs raided warehouses where they recovered huge quantity of foreign origin non-Customs paid tyres were dumped at godowns.
It was also revealed during raid that said non-Customs paid tyres were stored in the godowns .Smugglers used to supply tyres in the retail markets of South Punjab. Customs teams recovered almost 750 foreign origin tyres of different brands and said light traffic vehicles (LTV) were shifted to State ware Customs House. Multan Customs Anti-Smuggling has shown exceptional performance in the month of January due to active participation of field staff and they have already detected several illegal warehouses of Cigarettes and High Speed Diesel in successful different operations.
Multan Customs Preventive has seized the recovered tyres under customs act 1969 and started action against owner of godowns. The net value of the seized tyres was almost Rs4.5 million and duty taxes of Rs.3.2 million.
Sources told Customs Today that Multan Customs continued to make achievements in anti-smuggling work without compromising the objectives of trade facilitation in region. Anti-Smuggling Organization has bolstered up intelligence exchange and co-operation with law-enforcement agencies to curb smuggling in the jurisdiction.
Further investigations against owners of warehouses are still under process.
