PESHAWAR: Government should take steps for modernizing customs patrolling services to curb smuggling from borders with Afghanistan, Iran and India.
Sources told Customs Today that this has been said in a draft prepared by FBR to reconcile the customs patrolling services for curbing smuggling and safeguarding economic activities along the borders.
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FBR has urged the government to create a new Customs Border Force (CBF) to encounter smuggling and challenges in the border area to safeguard economic frontiers of the country, sources informed.
Sources in Customs House Peshawar further said that draft to create a force for ensuring effectiveness of customs laws enforcement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been prepared which will be presented to the responsible quarters for further orders.
A trained and well-equipped CBF force is required to encounter the risk to economic frontiers of Pakistan. The role of customs border patrolling posts will then become more efficient in combating smuggling of NDP goods and vehicles while this will make the trade smooth for traders due to customs border patrolling posts.
The sources added that the Collectorates had been directed by FBR to introduce electronic data interchange with Afghanistan, Iran and China which will also work out in order to reconcile the trade data emanating from transit trade and to ensure that the goods transited have been reported to their system.
The sources revealed that no recruitment in different cadres of Customs including operational levels has taken place for the past 15 years resulting in a thinner and aging force mostly provided through promotion of staff in the executive cadre.
In order to strengthen the force into a competent and skilled manpower that can meet the mounting challenges of the law enforcement in the given situation, the federal government would be approached to order fresh recruitment against a reevaluated human resource requirement in addition to provision of equipment training and resources.
