August 18, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 4, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: State Minister for Finance Omar Ayub Khan on Friday admitted that Iranian petroleum products in large quantities were smuggled into Pakistan during the last two years.

He stated this while responding to a written question of MNA Riaz Fatyana seeking details about the percentage losses in revenue suffered by the government due to the smuggling of these petroleum products.

The minister said smuggling of POL products from Iran had been rampant as substantial price difference existed between the adjoining markets.

However, the minister did not offer any figure of revenue losses saying the smuggling of Iranian POL products was taking place from many routes and its exact quantum was not known.

He informed the lower house that the CBR had taken many measures which included establishment of new customs stations and carrying out operations to check smuggling of these POL products.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) seized 780,237 litres of petrol in 2005-06 and 1,726,019 litres in 2006-07.