Pakistan Customs, under the umbrella of Federal Board of Revenue, has, amongst its core functions, a major role in the economy by protecting local industry through prevention of smuggling.
The territorial jurisdiction of the Collectorate of Customs (Enforcement-Multan) is pivotal with respect to the across-the-border movement of goods as the Collectorate is situated in the amalgam of three provinces, i.e., on side touching Balochistan through Rakhni-Bawata Inter-Provincial Border and, on the other hand, linking with Sindh through Obaro-Sadiqabad Point.
Whears, it is adjacently placed alongside the Punjab which is the major consumer of raw materials and finished-goods/articles, in terms of industrial development and population, respectively.
Following the vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan, to eradicate smuggling, the Collectorate of Customs (Enforcement-Multan), in an intensified counter-smuggling drive, has, with the assistance of law-enforcement agencies (LEAs), i.e. Police, Rangers, Border Military Police (BMP), and intelligence agencies, made major seizures of smuggled goods, viz. fabric, cigarettes, betel-nut, non-Customs-paid vehicles, High-speed Diesel (HSD), tyres, etc. besides narcotics, during the Calendar Year, 2021. The value of the seized goods is, approximately, Rs 2753 million.
The Collectorate, under the supervision of Imran Ahmad Chaudhary – Collector, has recorded unprecedented performance by recently seizing smuggled goods including fabric and Cigarettes from a godown belonging to Sadiq Achakzai’s smuggling racket. The ASO units of the Collectorate, with the assistance of the officials of the Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation (I & I – Customs), Multan, on a tip-off shared of information by the CPO Office, Multan, raided a godown near Bahawalpur By-Pass Road, Multan and recovered foreign-origin smuggled fabric and cigarettes equivalent a load of twenty two (22) trucks worth market valuing approximately Rs.400 million. The operation was jointly supervised by Collector (Multan) and CPO (Multan) along with their officers/officials present on-spot. An FIR has been registered. The valuable assistance extended by Mr. Asif Abbas, Director, Customs Intelligence proved very strengthening.
Anticipating the influx of smuggled goods as a result of US and NATO fall-out from Afghanistan, the Transit Trade has seen a shift with the Transit goods having been come largely under the ambit of smuggling specially certain items including, inter alia, betel-nut, tyres, black-tea, Mono-Sodium Glutamate (MSG) etc. invading the domestic markets of Pakistan. Resultantly, the Collectorate has recently intercepted a container, en route India via Wahga transit route, said to contain Transit goods falsely covered under a fake transit GD. The container was found PCCS-sealed with tracker devices intact. Initial investigation revealed that reveals that several tracker devices of T.P.L Trakker Company, as used in the container, were reported lost. A case has been registered and further investigations are underway.
