From: Business Recorder (PK)
The national drive initiated by the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue (IR) Federal Board of Revenue against non-duty paid and smuggled cigarettes has started showing visible results in the form of huge detections and seizures particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Punjab and Islamabad.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that the action of the directorate is visible in four major areas ie non-duty paid cigarettes in KP, smuggled cigarettes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, non-duty paid foreign origin cigarettes and evasion of duties and taxes by units in Mardan.
The results of the exercise clearly pointed towards corrective measures being taken by the local manufactures of cigarettes in KPK due to strict enforcement and vigilance by the agency.
The things have started moving in the right direction and local units have started complying with the laws to operate under the documented regime.
The purpose of the whole exercise was to encourage the local manufacturers to pay the due amount of taxes and continue conducting business with necessary documentation.
Details of the latest cases revealed that the directorate has seized two trucks of non-duty paid cigarettes carrying 6 million sticks of cigarettes in Peshawar.
The adjudicating authorities have upheld the seizure made by the agency and directed the involved persons to deposit the due amount of tax to the tune of millions in the national exchequer.
This was one of the major cases framed by the agency in KPK where seizure report of the agency has been confirmed by the adjudication officials.
The party tried to pressurise the senior FBR officials to withdraw the seizure case of two trucks fully loaded with 6 million sticks of cigarettes.
Despite immense pressure, the directorate of intelligence IR continued to pursue the case and finally adjudication department decided the case in favour of the agency.
Sources said that the regional directorate of intelligence IR Faisalabad has seized 490,000 sticks of Kashmir based non-duty paid cigarettes.
The cigarettes being manufactured by certain units of the Azad Kashmir are being smuggled into Punjab.
Punjab is a heaven for the dealers of non-duty paid cigarettes manufactured by AJK-based units.
Director Intelligence Zulfiqar Kazmi and Additional Director Intelligence Shafiq Ullah Khan Niazi of regional directorate Faisalabad have made the major detection of the AJK-based smuggled cigarettes.
The agency has made the seizure report and adjudication proceedings are underway for recovery of the taxes on non-duty paid cigarettes.
In another major development, the teams of the directorate of intelligence IR have conducted raids in posh markets of Islamabad including Jinnah Super market, Super Market, Kohasar Market and Karachi Company.
The agency has conducted raids on the stockists of smuggled cigarettes to take action against all those involved in illicit trade of the product.
Out of eight different business premises located in posh localities, only one wholesale unit has some quantity of foreign origin smuggled cigarettes.
Earlier, the mobile teams of the FBR have visited the Jinnah Super market, Super Market, Blue Area, Kohasar Market, Karachi Company, commercial areas of F-10 and F-11 sectors, big retail outlets and other markets located in federal capital.
The mobile team had visited different markets of Islamabad and collected data about the availability of the foreign non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes.
The mobile team has found that the smuggled cigarettes do not have printed retail price and there is also health warnings on the same.
The mobile team had distributed educational material to the stores, shops and retail outlets and also issued warnings to remove the stock of the foreign non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes.
Now, the teams raided all posh shops and business units in the said markets and surprisingly found that almost all of the shops have removed the stocks of the foreign non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes from their business premises.
This clearly shows that the earlier exercise of the directorate has given a clear message to the outlets of the foreign non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes and they removed stocks to avoid penalty, fine and adjudication proceedings against them.
In the next stage, the directorate of intelligence IR has decided to focus on Southern Punjab to check the production of the counterfeit cigarettes.
During this exercise, the agency would focus on Southern Punjab to detect units involved in production of counterfeit cigarettes.
The agency has also started monitoring of a local unit located in Haripur to check the payment of the excise duty vis-à-vis production of the cigarettes.
The registered unit is paying low amount of duty as compared to the actual potential.
Sources added that the agency has adopted a balanced approach during this on-going exercise against the non-duty paid local cigarettes in KP/Punjab, monitoring of units located in Mardan, smuggled cigarettes of AJK, foreign non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes in federal capital and action against counterfeit production in Southern Punjab.
All parts of the country have been covered where sales of such non-duty paid local cigarettes and foreign origin smuggled brands is taking place in large number.
In the past, directorate of intelligence IR has taken a number of enforcement actions to check illicit trade of non-duty paid or smuggled cigarettes.
The agency has constituted Mobile Teams at Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi.
It has seized 6 million non-duty paid locally manufactured cigarette sticks.
The number seizures/detention stood at three where over 27000 KGs un-manufactured tobacco.
The directorate has sealed two un-authorized warehouses of un-manufactured tobacco.
The agency has impounded record of a sole distributor reflecting evasion of Duty/Taxes over Rs 100 million.
The directorate has detected 03 cases of illegal import of raw material (Cigarette Paper, Acetate tow etc).
The evasion of Rs 120 million has been worked out in one case by the agency.
