Almost every month new taxes are levied on daily-use commodities or the existing ones hiked either directly or indirectly by the government on the pretext of economic crisis, which mostly hit the low income group.

The salaried class, traders and consumers of gas, electricity, phones and petroleum products are among the worst affected by such tax hikes, but they are unable to resist any of the government decisions. Multiple taxes have been imposed on the ordinary consumers, but influential people are openly minting money even in the presence of law enforcers and no one can dare take action against them.

One such example is the state of affairs at the Pak-Afghan border (Torkham) where huge consignments of all kinds of foreign goods are transported into Pakistan without any check on them or payment of tax. No matter how big is the consignment, one has to grease the palms of the people keeping check on them. The checkers have nothing to do with scanning of goods at least to ascertain what stuff is being shifted to Pakistan from across the border, but their entire focus remain on collecting bribes.

If proper steps are taken by the government, billions of rupees in revenue could be collected annually through customs duty at Torkham station.

There is no limit or time for the goods transportation, but groups of labourers can be seen pushing handcarts the whole day from across the Afghan border into Pakistan. There seems to be no check even on the movement of explosives and drugs. If proper steps are taken by the government, billions of rupees revenue could be collected annually through customs duty at Torkham station alone.

Many people are somehow related to the illegal business and earning a big amount of money daily. During a visit to the Pak-Afghan border, it was observed that despite security at the entry and exit points on both sides the owners of goods, transporters, agents (to facilitate people) and labourers were equally active to earn money through any means. Sometimes, one can enjoy a lot to observe owners bargaining with relevant people for seeking permission for transportation of their consignments. There is no record, receipt and the entire money goes into pockets.

Basically, checking of import and export goods is the duty of customs department, but here the situation is quite different. The consignments are shifted to the warehouses, while the customs officials do nothing against the smugglers.

An official of the customs department posted at Torkham told Dawn that the relevant law did not allow them to take action against those using other routes rather than the main roads. “We can take action only on the metalled road,” he said.

Customs Station, Torkham, assistant collector Najeeb Arjumand said that his staff had a very limited role in checking of the goods and several other agencies were also involved in the process. He said that the customs station had been established in 1954 and it was supposed to be equipped with all facilities, but it could not happen. He said that it even did not have scanning machines to check movement of drugs and explosives, while owing to unavailability of truck terminals at Torkham the customs staff was faced with multiple problems though it was generating millions of rupees revenue monthly.

Mr Arjumand said that due to unavailability of terminal the customs department had shifted its clearance station for perishable commodities, including milk, vegetables and fruits, to Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency from the Pak-Afghan border.

The decision, he said, had been taken owing to the shortage of space, equipment and other facilities at the clearance station in Torkham. The customs station lacked scanners, proper terminals, examination areas and sufficient space to park containers for checking. He said that the station was partially shifted to Jamrud where the National Logistic Cell was facilitating it by providing enough space where goods could be registered and other facilities provided.

When contacted, customs collector Qurban Ali Khan said that Torkham was an international border linking Afghanistan and different central Asia states, but the customs station lacked proper facilities.

The customs department, he said, had recently launched computerized customs clearance system WeBOC (web-based one customs) at Torkham to facilitate the transporters, traders and customs staff. He said that with the installation of WeBOC the entire process of customs clearance had been computerised. This will enable the customs department to monitor online the movement of goods across the border and collection of duty and taxes. This would also facilitate the trading community for swift clearance of their consignments.

According to Qurban Ali, a big project is being planned in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank whereby the Chaman, Wagah and Torkham borders would be upgraded, most likely by June.

Asked about taking money illegally from the handcart pushers, an official of Khasadar Force at Torkham said that it was an old practice and still continuing. He said that political administration wielded the entire powers to check, seize or allow non-custom-paid goods.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2016