Member Customs – FBR, Mukarram Jah Ansari and DG I&I Faiz Ahmed are pursuing a rigorous anti-smuggling campaign with special focus on Quetta.

Under invoicing and smuggling through border/ports is the biggest reason of creating demand of USD in black market. In such trade, the importers make payments through non-banking channels, which drains out the foreign exchange. Moreover, there is no record and documentation of such trade, and there are still no measures to prevent it.

Customs authorities still support under-invoicing with the excuse to ease burden on importers, but revenue is not main issue, main issue is the foreign exchange.

Given the precarious economic situation of the country, authorities need to reduce imports and stop payment for any import/smuggling from open market. Because, if payments are made from open market it increases demand of USD in open market.

In order to deal with these challenges, Chief Collector Abdul Qadir Memon, Collector Enforcement Quetta Sami-ul-Haq and Collector Appraisement Quetta Agha Saeed are doing a great job despite shortage of resources.

I&I Karachi recently recovered large quantity of smuggled goods including USA origin aircraft piston oil. This is a cartel, which is inflicting heavy loss to the national economy. These people have been known to misuse the diplomatic consignments for their nefarious designs. The master mind of this entire ring is said to be operating from Dubai.

Sources said certain section officers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are involved. Even the diplomatic missions and embassies are not even aware of the misuse of the exemptions only available to them. In some cases embassy/diplomatic missions are also involved.

All Enforcement formations including Enforcement Lahore, Multan, Hyderabad, and Peshawar are performing satisfactorily. However, the performance of Customs Enforcement Karachi is below par.

Smuggling and transportation/distribution of smuggled goods is running in a very organized manner through Karachi. Goods are moved and distributed through Suzuki pick-ups, high-roof vehicles etc. The reason behind disappointing performance of Enforcement Karachi is posting of inexperienced Assistant/Additional Collectors.