National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has constituted an expert committee headed by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Customs Munir Qureshi to conduct a scientific study on the smuggling of tea, tyres and electronic goods etc through the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and impact of tariff rationalisation on the local industry.
The FBR committee would give its expert opinion on the basis of data available in the filed formations and viewpoint of stakeholders. FBR Chairman Sohail Ahmed requested the committee to give a time frame for carrying out such study, which would give a clear picture about the smuggling of the tea, tyres and electronic goods.
Taking into account the viewpoint of the local manufacturers, impact of tariff rationalisation on major smuggling prone items would be carried out based on suggestions of the importers. During the committee proceedings, committee and stakeholders highly appreciated the anti-smuggling performance of Munir Qureshi, which has reduced smuggling due to restoration of the anti-smuggling squads and customs check posts across the country.
FBR Member Customs informed the committee that revival of anti-smuggling operations and barriers have significantly reduced smuggling since last September. The enforcement and anti-smuggling actions have definitely shown results and seizure of tyres and tea has been increased manifolds during 2010-2011 as compared to the same period last fiscal.
The teams of the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigations also conduct raids at the godowns etc having huge quantity of smuggled goods. Different kinds of confiscated goods could not be released on payment of redemption fine. The FIRs have been registered against smugglers in such cases of seized goods. The FBR is also carrying out information-based and profile-based anti-smuggling activities to check the illicit trade.