The customs officials of most of the Asian and Pacific countries, including Pakistan are facing organised commercial tax frauds, under-valuation and under-invoicing of imported goods.
Addressing a press conference on the conclusion of 18th Administrative Meeting of National Contact Points of WCO''s RILOs for Asia and the Pacific, the chairperson of the meeting, Director General Customs Intelligence Major General Usman Shah said that all 28 member countries were facing massive under-invoicing of imported goods. The World Customs Organisation and RILO offices have pledged to jointly combat the menace of under-valuation.
Responding to a question, he said that the meeting decided to formulate a strategy to effectively check the organised evasion of duties and taxes. He said that customs officials of member countries were presently exchanged in information about commercial frauds after obtaining approval from their respective governments. Information is provided to other countries, in case they have bilateral agreement or treaties. The modus operandi of tax scams in one country helps the customs officials to unearth similar nature of cases in other countries.
However, a government could not be forced to provide information about commercial tax frauds in the absence of a bilateral agreement. DG Intelligence said that Afghanistan harvested a bumper opium crop and produced 610 metric tons heroin (6.5 kg-10 kg opium is needed to produce one kg heroin). The WCO has been actively engaged in combating the menace of opium production in Afghanistan, he said.
Pakistans customs is giving training to Afghan counterparts to effectively tackle drugs-related crimes. Afghanistan is a developing state having its own machinery to check opium production and drug trafficking.
About the performance of Pakistan''s customs, Usman said that customs is not the sole agency to check drug trafficking. Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has the primary role in this regard. It is the combined efforts of customs, intelligence directorate and ANF to control the menace of drugs smuggling. Even the best agencies of the world are facing problems as far as drug trafficking is concerned, he added.
He quoted examples of Afghanistan, Burma and Cambodia having similar problems in combating narco-trade. He said that Afghan anti-narcotics police has been trained and equipped to check drug trafficking. In this connection, the United Nations has provided millions of dollars to eradicate poppy cultivation.
DG Customs Intelligence said that the meeting discussed ''Project Crocodile'' to check smuggling of cigarettes. Eight member countries reported 33 seizures containing 81.6 million sticks of cigarettes and 12.6 tons tobacco leaf. The ''Project Crocodile'' has recommended checking of suspicious consignments and sharing data for enhancing communication among member countries.
Kazunari Igarashi, technical officer WCO Secretariat, told reporters that RILO is an inter-governmental organ, which would be used for development of customs competency to combat commercial frauds, money laundering, drug/arms trafficking, smuggling, intellectual property rights (IPR) violations and environmental crimes. The organisation also exchanges information about sophisticated and complicated techniques used by smugglers.
He highly appreciated the role of Pakistan customs in detecting smuggled consignments and checking drug trafficking. The regional intelligence gathering is needed to achieve the strategic objectives of the RILOs, he said.
WCO action plan provides high quality global intelligence, promote importance of intelligence within administrations and support to member countries by maintaining Customs Enforcement Network. The post-clearance audit guidelines have been developed and IPR Expert Group focuses on destruction and recycling of seized counterfeit and pirated goods.
Zhao Jie, Deputy Head of RILO for Asia Pacific Region, said that RILO activities included enhancing intelligence analysis, promoting customs enforcement network, providing technical assistance programme, strengthening regional and inter-regional co-operation, facilitating information exchange and request for administrative assistance. He said that there is need of strengthening the regional cooperation.