PESHAWAR: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) destroyed a huge quantity of counterfeit cigarettes here on Wednesday.

Over 10 million counterfeit cigarettes packed in over 1,000 cartons were destroyed in a specially organised event in the Industrial Estate Hayatabad situated on Jamrud Road in the presence of mediapersons.

According to an official, the cigarettes were seized by the FBR’s directorate of intelligence & investigation (IR), during raids on different warehouses within in the vicinity of Peshawar district.

The raids were conducted after receipt of a tip-off regarding the stockpiling of counterfeit cigarettes, which was verified by the IR directorate through assigning a mobile squad to visit the location of such godowns without disclosing their identity and to collect samples of fake cigarette.

In view of the information, the directorate decided to initiate formal operation against the fake cigarettes and the officers of the directorate were authorised under the Federal Excise Act, 2005 and Rule 62 of the Federal Excise Rules, 2005 to raid the premises where counterfeit cigarettes were stored.

Officers of the directorate along with supporting staff conducted raids on the godowns located in Chughal Pura near Ring Road Bridge.

During search of the specified area, the raiding team uncovered four godowns having huge stocks of counterfeit cigarettes. The godowns were unlocked and numerous cartons of cigarettes of different brands were found stocked therein, which were seized.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2017