KARACHI: Under the guidance of Chairman FBR, Mr Asim Ahmad and the direct supervision of the Director General Customs Intelligence, Mr. Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, Customs Intelligence has seized smuggled cigarettes worth Rs. 303 million during last ten days in its country-wide operations.
The largest catch has been effected in Balochistan, where Customs Intelligence seized 4,280,000 sticks of foreign brands of cigarettes, valuing Rs. 114.2 million. Whereas in the province of Sindh eight operations have resulted in the seizure of 1,420,700 sticks of high-end brands of cigarettes valuing Rs. 69.7 million. Similarly, during intelligence-based operations in Punjab, the Customs Intelligence team seized 1,294,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valuing Rs. 75.3 million. Likewise, KPK Customs Intelligence has seized 1,155,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valuing Rs. 43.9 million.
Taken altogether, during the last ten days Customs Intelligence has seized 8,149,700 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valuing Rs. 303 million. This takes the tally of seizures of smuggled cigarettes by the Customs Intelligence in the current FY 2022-23 to 33,994,850 sticks valuing Rs. 1324 million. The Chairman FBR, Mr. Asim Ahmad, and the Director General, Customs Intelligence, Mr. Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, lauded the efforts of Customs Intelligence Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Gwadar, Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar and acknowledged that despite minimal human resource and logistics Customs Intelligence is effectively doing efforts to eradicate the menace of smuggling in general and of smuggled cigarettes in particular.