ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a clarification on the news item captioned as “How smuggling is bleeding Pakistan’s revenue dry” published in an Engljsh daily on November 25, 2020.
FBR has clarified that the reporter has used a study of 2018 pertaining to smuggling of goods, the numbers of which have become outdated due to various policy and administrative measures taken by the government. The Federal Government is fully cognizant of the issue of smuggling and its negative impact on the economy. Therefore, recently, Federal Government has introduced national counter smuggling measures.
The news item points out that around 74% of the mobile phones used in Pakistan were smuggled into the country which is factually incorrect.
Pakistan Customs in coordination with PTA has introduced DIRBS (Device identification, registration & blocking system) for registration of mobile devices. Now any non-duty paid/ smuggled phones cannot be used in Pakistan without payment of due taxes and registration with PTA.
It said in 2019-20, Pakistan Customs has collected Rs 54 billion as revenue through DIRBS without involving any human intervention and thus completely eliminating the usage of smuggled devices in Pakistan.
This successful intervention has attracted huge investment in the country and now 17 companies are manufacturing mobile phones in Pakistan.
Better use of information technology and enforcement through targeted operations against smugglers, the issue of availability of smuggled items has been addressed to a large extent which has provided space for local industry. It is due to this reason that now people are moving towards setting up industry in Pakistan. Despite the current pandemic and sluggish demand, the textile industry of Pakistan is operating at full capacity due to unavailability of smuggled goods.
While mentioning about counter smuggling efforts, FBR has stated that a national steering committee on anti-smuggling headed by Secretary Interior Division with members from all Law Enforcement Agencies has been constituted which conducts regular meetings to review and maintain liaison amongst Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA). Pakistan Customs has made historic seizures amounting to Rs 23 billion in coordination and support from Law Enforcement Agencies during the first four months of the current financial year which is 43% higher than the seizures made during the corresponding period last year. Amendments have been introduced in the Customs Act 1969 to award harsh punishment including forfeiture of property, godowns used for storage of smuggled goods, penalty and imprisonment upto 10 years.
FBR has termed the news report as outdated and not relevant at this point of time.
