FAISALABAD: The Customs Collectorate is paying special attention and focuses to boost large scale Anti Smuggling Organization (ASO) activities in order to make the region well protected against smuggling.
This was stated by Faisalabad Customs Assistant Collector Shah Samad Hamadani during an interview with Customs Today. He said, we are always busy in motivating and preparing anti smuggling and appraisement officers to obtain maximum results.
He also stressed coordination with other law enforcement agencies in order to curb smuggling and illegal trade. He added that effective strategies were being designed to improve the performance of the department.
The assistant collector shared latest performance what he termed that the Faisalabad Customs excelled and outnumbered all Collectorates of the country in prevention of smuggling especially when it came to impound the vehicles miscellaneous items in terms of value and quantity as it seized items worth Rs 41545590 and registered almost 22 seizure cases during month of September.
The assistant collector said that the Faisalabad Customs impounded 8 non duty paid vehicle under Section ( U/S-16 ) worth Rs 10,200,000. At least 9 others vehicle being used for smuggling were impounded under Section ( U/S-157 ), worth Rs 14,000,000, He further said that the collectorate also seized 432 kilograms smuggled cloth Worth Rs, 172800, Timber 1624 kilograms Worth Rs, 1067690, Foreign origin ( F/O ), Diesels 75000 Litters, Blankets 9000 kilograms worth Rs3,600,000, and others miscellaneous items 49646 Kilograms worth Rs 10305100 he explained.
The Anti Smuggling Organization (ASO) conducted raids on different routes including Quetta Qila Saifullah, Zhob, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffarahgarh, Mianwali, Kot Bannu, Bhakkar, Sirai Muhajir, Jhang City, Nowshera, Attock Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Bhera Interchange and Kot Momin, Assistant Collector Hamadani. He added that the ASO recovered smuggled goods from truck, buses, and containers.
The assistant collector said that under the supervision of Collector Muhammad Sadiq the customs staff to remain vigilant throughout the jurisdiction against smugglers, adding that he will not tolerate any sort of negligence by the staff if he found. Both effective strategy and staff commitment were required for taking action against smugglers in the region.
He added, We achieved the target set by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with a significant ratio. No doubt we are working hard and successfully collecting the revenue more than the target set by the government.
Highlighting the performance of Faisalabad Customs Appraisement Shah Samad Hamadani appreciated the performance of import Suprintendent Rana Mukhtar Ahmed who supervised the appraisement branch with effective strategy.
He informed that it exceeded revenue collection target in first three month by 18 percent during fiscal year 2016-17 under the leadership of Collector Muhammad Sadiq. It collected Rs 3109.51 million against the assigned target of Rs 2630.40 million.
Assistant Collector warned that field staff will be reshuffled, if the officials could not deliver positive results on assigned tasks. He also directed the ASO officials to improve the performance otherwise they will be transferred to other region to gain better results.
The Collectorate has jurisdiction over two civil divisions, which are comprised 12 districts, covering an area of 46,000 kilometers, He said. Our Collectoarte has focused to uproot the mega smuggling activities in and around the city. that when the large scale smuggling activities are controlled small will automatically be eliminated. He informed that in this regard a comprehensive strategy has been evolved which would hopefully produce good results.