MULTAN: At the end of 2nd Quarter (Q2) in FY 2019-20, MCC Preventive Multan has seized goods worth Rs. 1,592 million as compared to Rs. 837 million worth of goods seized last year during the same period. A growth of 91% has been recorded in seizure values this year viz-a-viz previous year.
MCC Preventive Multan has shown remarkable results under the leadership of Collector CustomS Muhammad Saleem.
Moreover, as against assigned target of Rs. 1,332 million Collectorate made seizures of Rs. 1,592 million which is 20% higher than the target assigned by the Federal Board of Revenue.
After joining MCC Multan, the Collector Muhammad Saleem took effective administrative measures by re-organizing the field formation in six new Anti Smuggling Divisions. Each Division is headed by AC/DCs and specific targets were assigned to each ASO Division.
In addition, the staff was deployed at the strategic locations and choke points. The progress and movement of squads were closely monitored.
Apart from seizing the smuggled goods passing through the territory of Collectorate, raids were also carried out on godowns stored with smuggled food grains, Dry fruit and LEDs in Faisalabad and huge quantity of smuggled goods were recovered from these locations.
Further, on specific information items like smuggled Heavy Load Cranes were also seized. MCC Preventive staff at Multan International Airport also foiled an attempt to smuggle foreign currency UAE Dirham 117,355 (US $31,000) out of country on 13 December, 2019 from a passenger travelling to UAE.
The passenger along with currency was taken into custody and FIR was lodged. Precisely, the Collectorate seized 92 Non Duty Paid (NDP) vehicles valuing Rs. 249.5 Million, Miscellaneous merchandise worth Rs. 639.34 Million, Vehicles carrying smuggled goods worth Rs. 336 Million, Cloth worth Rs. 122.9 Million, Tyres worth Rs 54 Million and Diesel worth Rs. 39 Million.
All this was made possible due to well thought out strategy and placement of staff on merits keeping in view of the on ground requirements and cultivation of an efficient network of informers.
The aggressive and focused anti-smuggling drive has caused a great setback to the smugglers as is evident from the quantum of seized goods and their values, when compared with previous years.
The Collectorate shall keep this momentum continue to root out smuggling in line with the Policy of the current Government .