Traders urged to shun smuggled goods

Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Shabbar Raza Zaidi has urged traders to refrain from dealing in smuggled goods and has advised them to abstain from buying and selling such products.

At this crucial juncture, such activities on part of the business community can jeopardise the government’s initiatives and efforts for economic revival as it adversely affects the local industry while also causing a loss to the public exchequer.

In this regard, Member Customs (Operations) Dr Jawwas Uwais Agha held a marathon session on May 24 and 25 with chief collector and collectors of the central region of Pakistan Customs. During the course of the meeting, the performance in terms of revenue collection and enforcement operations during the current financial year were analysed.



Further, a strategy was also developed to maximise revenue collection during the remaining period of the financial year without compromising upon trade facilitation.

The revenue collection of the central region in terms of total duty and taxes comes to Rs160 billion which is 6% customs duty between July 2018 and April 2019. The collection of customs duty comes to Rs66 billion which is 32% more as compared to the same period in the previous year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2019.