Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
The Federal Board of Revenue [FBR] has seized two truckloads of 6 million counterfeit cigarettes during an operation led by the Regional Tax Office (RTO) of Rawalpindi
These cigarette sticks were causing a loss of over Rs12 million to the national exchequer in federal excise duty and sales tax, according to the RTO senior officials.
According to details, a team of the RTO intercepted two trucks carrying 300 packs of counterfeited brand ‘Classic’ and 300 of counterfeited brand ‘Kissan’ on Expressway Murree near Lower Topa.
The counterfeit cigarettes were manufactured in the Wayward factory in Muzaffarabad owned by one Babar Taj and Babar Naseem and were being transported to other parts of the country when seized in a raid.
Lawyers, members of the civil society and students have protested many times in Muzaffarabad against the factory, but the government has yet to initiate action against it.
The locals have also lodged numerous complaints against the factory with Commissioner Inland Revenue Asim Shaukat but a legal action against the owners has yet to be initiated.
According to the FBR documents, the driver was asked to provide evidence of payment of federal excise duty as envisaged in the Federal Excise Act 2005 and Federal Excise Rule 2005, but no legal document or federal excise invoice was available with the drivers.
The examination of cigarettes shows that 300 packarites containing three million counterfeited cigarettes of ‘Kissan’ brand and 300 packarites containing three million counterfeited cigarettes of ‘classic’ brand was loaded on the trucks.
