Rs5.9b smuggled goods, vehicles seized in one year

LAHORE:Anti-smuggling wings of the Collectorate of Customs (Enforcement) Lahore in Lahore, Faisalabad and Sargodha divisions seized Rs 5.9 billion smuggled/non customs paid goods and vehicles from July 2021 to June 2022.

The seized goods included high quality fabric, tyres, cigarettes, skimmed milk powder, food items, garments, betel nuts, tobacco, medicines, cosmetics and other things. Moreover, a special campaign was launched against the smuggled/non custom paid vehicles which resulted in the seizures of 145 luxury vehicles, including Toyota Land Cruiser (V8), Toyota Hilux Surf, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota Mark X, etc.

The value of seized vehicles amounts to Rs624.80 million. Comparative raise in value of total seizures as compared to the previous financial year is about 42 percent. In addition to this, the revenue figures of auction and duty/taxes collected on release of non notified goods stand at Rs816 million which were deposited into the national exchequer. The percentage of revenue collected through auction this year is about 147 per cent higher than that in the corresponding period of the last financial year. The strategy adopted by the Collectorate proved to be effective in prevention of transportation of smuggled goods to markets of major cities of central Punjab.