…Customs officials recovered the smuggled and fake cigarettes in various parts of Khyber Pakhunkhwa
PESHAWAR: Director General Customs Intelligence and Investigation Faiz Ahmad Chadhar on Friday told media that during the past ten days they have foiled bids and seized smuggled and fake cigarettes worth Rs 303 milloon being smuggled from Afghanistan and Iran.
Brienfing the reporters here the custom intellegent director General Faiz Ahmad Chadhar said that on the directives of Chairman Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) Asim Ahmad the intellegence staff launched crack downs against the smuggling of foreign made and fake cigarettes country wide.
He said during the past ten dyas they conducted raids in border areas with Afghanistan and Iran including Torkham,Peshawar,Mardan,DI.Khan,Quetta and Karachi.
Faiz Ahmad said customs officials recovered smuggled and fake cigarettes worth Rs43.9 million in various parts of Khyber Pakhunkhwa.
He said on the basis of intellegent reports the smugglers had smuggled fake and foreign made cigarettes from Afghanistan and Iran.
The brand names of the sized cigarettes were included of Royal, Business, Pine, Dunhill, Bensen and Hedges, M7, Platinum, Peed Blue Mond,Elegance, Milano, Knightsbridge, Hi-Lite, Marlboro Gold and GB Classic Virginia UK,he said.
He said the largest catche of fake smuggled cigarettes seized in raids conducted in Balochistan where Rs114.2 million of foreign made cigarettes were seized.
The custom official said during crack down in Punjab the customs Intelligence team seized Rs75.3 million worth of smuggled and fake cigarettes.
Faiz added that during the current year they have so far seized fake and smuggled cigarettes worth of Rs1324 million.
The Chairman FBR, Asim Ahmad and the Director General, Customs Intelligence 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 was effectively doing efforts to eradicate the menace of smuggling in general and of smuggled cigarettes in particular.
