KARACHI, April 22: The Customs Department has decided to install special equipment at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport and the Port Qasim in order to improve its vigilance.

This was disclosed by Collector Customs Mohammad Afzal Bhatti while giving an overview of his department's performance at the Customs House here on Thursday.

He said that scanners would soon be installed at the Port Qasim, which would rule out possibility of pilferage at any point of transshipment. Besides, he said that with the installation of scanners, the port authorities would have the images of scanned containers and provide copies of the same at the destined dry port for cross-check to ensure that the container had not been tampered with.

Referring to the intellectual property rights, Mr Bhatti said that the United States was protecting her interests by deputing its customs officials at over 21 major ports of the world.

He revealed that the US authorities wanted its customs officials to be deputed at Pakistani ports. However, he pointed out that the matter was yet to be taken up by the US authorities due to our satisfactory performance in checking the violation of intellectual property rights at our ports.

He said that the Customs Department was gearing up its efforts to face new challenges in the post 9/11 scenario. Mr Bhatti also gave some details about the recent seizures made by the Customs. He said that 9.5kg heroin was recovered from oil filters in an export consignment by the Drug Enforcement Cell of Customs Department.

Moreover, he said 7.4kg heroin was recovered from a consignment of a courier service at the airport. Similarly, he added, a sizable quantity of heroin concealed in carpets, which was being transported to Italy, was seized last month.

In terms of revenue collection from July 2003 to March 2004, he said that around Rs38,993 million were collected under the heads of customs duty, sales tax, income tax, central excise duty, development surcharge.