PESHAWAR: New measures lead to rise in smuggling of foreign goods
By Intikhab Amir
PESHAWAR, Jan 4: The Central Board of Revenue's anti-smuggling measures adopted at the start of the current financial year have proven ineffective as the flow of non-duty paid foreign goods from Peshawar
to other parts of the country has grown substantially over the past six months, according to official and business circles.
New anti-smuggling measures, adopted in the light of decisions taken in the collectors' conference held on July 6 last year, appear to have encouraged the illegal business as, according to market sources, the flow of non-duty paid fabric, electrical appliances, tea and a few other items from Peshawar to down country has registered increase.
The collectors' conference had decided to withdraw the mobile squads meant for anti-smuggling operations and remove customs collectorates' checkpoints. The collectors, according to official sources, had been asked to carry out anti-smuggling operations on the basis of credible information.
In this respect, they had been asked to conduct check up on the road by mobile squads on the basis of reliable information. The decision, officials said, had been taken primarily to curb misuse of authority and corruption on the part of customs staff.
Besides, it was also meant to put an end to general public's grievances caused due to on-the-road checking of public transport by the customs mobile squads. Information collected from official circles, business community and carriers involved in transporting non-duty paid items from Peshawar to markets in Punjab, particularly in Rawalpindi and Lahore, revealed that the illegal business was going on unabated in an organized manner.
"Supply of specific type of foreign product is mainly governed by demand from shopkeepers in Rawalpindi's Raja Bazaar and Lahore's Shah Almi market, two major markets of smuggled goods which receive bulk of the supplies from Peshawar," a carrier in his 40s, told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.
According to business circles in Peshawar's Karkhano market, the hub of non-duty paid foreign items, several groups of smugglers operating from the Karkhano market and Acheeni Bala in Bara, are carrying out the illegal business in an organized manner.
The carriers of smuggled items said the SHOs of several police stations in the NWFP and Punjab were involved in the illegal business. While the business circles operating in the Karkhano market and the carriers involved in smuggling said several items of the foreign origin were finding their way in Punjab's markets in huge quantity every day, Peshawar-based officials said the new anti-smuggling measures would start giving results with the passage of time.
"We have made some really good recoveries during the current financial year and further improvement is likely in the months to come as the new system takes strong roots," said an official of the customs extension of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR).
The collectorate, he claimed, seized huge quantity of smuggled cloth, black tea, cigarettes, tyres and electric appliances during the first five months of the current financial year.
The official said the new measures reflected a major shift in CBR's policy as the focus of anti-smuggling measures had been shifted from raids and operations to change in CBR's tariff regime.
"Tariff adjustments have been made to discourage smuggling of foreign items and the policy has been quite successful," said a senior officer of the CBR. Nonetheless, he conceded that some of the foreign items were still being smuggled from Afghanistan and being transported from Peshawar to down country markets.
"We are improving the network of our informers and further improvement is expected in the months to come," said the officer. He said under the new system the customs mobile squad would conduct raids only on the basis of information.
Though the Peshawar-based CBR authorities claimed they impounded scores of trucks and buses loaded with smuggled items in November when they were on their way to destinations in Punjab, market sources said transporters were taking maximum advantage of the situation as scores of buses loaded with packets of foreign items, hidden beneath the passengers' seats, were transporting contraband to the markets in Punjab.
