ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The involvement of numerous agencies in prevention of smuggling has rather increased the menace in the country with smuggled goods worth only Rs2.1 billion having been seized in the fiscal 2000-01 as against Rs2.57 billion during the same period previous year, showing a visible decrease of 0.47 billion.

Independent sources told Dawn here on Saturday that with the passage of time a constant decrease has been registered in the volume of the seizure of the smuggled goods despite the fact that so many agencies, Customs Intelligence, Customs Collectorates, Police Force, Frontier Constabulary, Frontier Corps Balochistan and NWFP, Pakistan Coast Guards, Punjab and Sindh Rangers were simultaneously working for the eradication of smuggling in the country.

The maximum seizure in the history of Pakistan was registered in the fiscal 1998-99, in which foreign smuggled goods worth Rs4.7 billion were forfeited.