In line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to curb the menace of smuggling, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Customs Region (North) seized goods worth Rs887 million during the period March-April 24, 2020, which is 333 million (60 percent) more than the seizures made during the same period of the last fiscal year (i.e., March-April, 2019).
According to the details released by the FBR's Customs Department here on Monday, the seized goods included non-duty paid vehicles (NDP) vehicles, dry/fresh fruit, jewellery (gold ornaments), smuggled oil/diesel, dry milk, foreign origin fabric, narcotics, tyres, mobile phones, cigarettes, electronics, and miscellaneous goods.
The Customs Region (North) comprises four Collectorates i.e., Model Customs Collectorates of Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, MCC (Appraisement; Facilitation), Peshawar and MCC (Enforcement; Compliance), Peshawar covering Islamabad/Rawalpindi, the whole of the KP as well as the merged districts of erstwhile Fata.
Though, all the four Collectorates of Customs Region (North) contributed significantly towards anti-smuggling, the performance of MCC (Enforcement; Compliance), Peshawar, stood exceptional in this regard.
The Collectorate was able to seize goods worth Rs615 million during the above mentioned period, which is 199 million (48 percent) more than the seizures made during the corresponding period of the last financial year, in spite of the fact that the public transport was closed and there was no movement on roads owing to lockdown announced by the federal and provincial governments.
On revenue front, Customs Region (North) collected Rs45,525 million during the first 10 months (till April 24, 2020) of the current financial year, which is Rs5,880 million (15 percent) more than the corresponding period of last financial year.
Despite the effect of COVID-19 when whole of the world standstill, this has been made possible by extra efforts on the part of Customs staff, posted in the region as per vision of the current government to maximize revenue collection through concerted efforts and business friendly approach despite import compression during the ongoing financial year.
Chief Collector Customs (North), Islamabad, Dr Asif Mahmood Jah attributed this achievement to Allah's kindness besides the untiring efforts and hard work of all the officers and staff of the North Region for maintaining a strong vigilance to maximize revenue through goods clearance, conducting auctions, recovery of arrears and encashment of bank guarantees etc. during these testing times under COVID-19 outbreak.
The chief collector also expressed confidence that all the officers and staff will maintain the same level of efficiency and put in their best possible efforts to continue such success in future as well.
He further emphasized upon the officers and staff to ensure strict discipline, adopt austerity measures, honesty and unflinching enforcement of laws for the economic uplift of the country as per vision of the government.
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