Dubai-bound flights: Strict profiling leads to reduction in flight of dollars

LAHORE: Strict profiling of Dubai-bound flights by the customs department and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has led to substantial reduction in the flight of dollars, said reliable sources.

They said the cash couriers have become vigilant and the trend of carrying dollars in cash through flights has reduced by 70 percent. The joint efforts of both the customs and FIA have borne desired results, they added.

The sources said a number of seizures of export consignments and passengers have also been made at the Torkham border to control smuggling of the US currency from the country. Highly-placed sources said truck drivers are involved in smuggling of the US dollars. They said the currency market of Rawalpindi has become a hotspot for the sale of US dollars destined to Afghanistan. In Peshawar, they said, Karkhana Bazar and Yadgar Chowk are two other places where the US dollars are bought and sold for the same purpose.

They shared another interesting development that the number of telephone calls from international passengers has increased to inquire about the possibility of carrying gold and currency from the country. There was hardly a telephone call three months earlier and the officers are receiving three calls a month now.

In addition, they said, the cash couriers have also become alert and they are avoiding carrying cash through flights. The only possibility left with them is to carry out their transactions through hundi and hawala.

When contacted, Collector of Customs Enforcement Basit Maqsood Abbasi confirmed the development, adding that the Customs has developed a system for submission of online currency declarations by the international passengers.

According to him, the model devised for this purpose is called Currency Declaration System (CDS), which contains a web form for online currency declaration. This form is accessible online. Passengers are able to open the online currency declaration form simply by clicking on the provided link to fill it up.

Functionality to scan and read QR Code information from passenger customs declaration form has been developed and available to departure monitoring officer and arrival monitoring officer role at the arrival and departure record screen, he added.

He said the system is able to decode/read the QR code information and auto populate the passport number information into the passport number field and flight date information into "flight date" field of "Arrival Record Entry" screen.

He said Pakistan Customs is very attentive to the situation and it has made it mandatory for all passengers to undergo thorough personal scrutiny and 100% declaration of currency through an automated process in order to ward off this nefarious illegal activity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021