A customs intelligence report has revealed that some high-ranking officials have caused the national treasury a loss of Rs. 4 billion by deliberately under-declaring imported goods.
According to the report, customs officials had requested to manually inspect the containers entering from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after the automated machine reportedly went out of order. As a result, senior customs officials manually inspected 110 containers full of high valued imported goods.
The report, however, reveals that not only was the automated machine was shut down on purpose, but the customs officials cleared 350 containers instead of the reported 110. All 350 containers were rushed through clearance as officials claimed they had perishable items like onions and potatoes.
Moreover, little to no amount was paid on these containers. While the amount to be collected per container was supposed to be Rs.7.2 million, custom officials only collected Rs. 82,400 for each container.
Pakistan Customs has forwarded the intelligence report to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Prime Minister Office, and Finance Ministry. The case has been turned over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for further investigation.
Action Against Involved Officers
Following the revelations made in the report, the federal government has transferred 13 officials of Customs Group:
- Member Customs Operation, Jawad Uwais Agha (BS-21), who was set to retire from service on 24 February, has been made OSD.
- Javed Ghani (BS-22), Member FBR, has been assigned additional charge of Member Customs.
- Mohammad Saleem (BS-20), Collector Preventive Multan, has been transferred as Collector Appraisement Peshawar.
- Khaleel Ibrahim Yousafani (BS-20), Collector Customs Appeals Karachi, has been posted as Collector Preventive Peshawar.
- Muhammad Yaqoob Mako (BS-20), Collector Gwadar, has been transferred and posted as Collector Customs Preventive Quetta. He retains the charge of the Collector Gwadar as well.
- Irfan ur Rehman (BS-20), Director Directorate of Transit Trade Quetta, has been posted as Collector Appraisement Quetta. He also keeps the charge of Director Transit Trade.
- Fayyaz Anwar (BS-20), Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I&I), has been posted as Collector Customs Preventive Multan.
- Imtiaz Ahmad Sheikh (BS-20), Collector Export Karachi, has taken the charge of Customs Export Port Mohammad Bin Qasim Karachi.
- Irfan Javed (BS-20), the Director Customs Intelligence and Investigation, has been posted as Director at the Directorate of Customs I&I Gwadar.
Asif Saeed Lughmani (BS-20), Collector Customs Preventive Peshawar, Ihsan Ali Shah (BS-20), Collector Customs Appraisement Peshawar, Iftikhar Ahmad (BS-20), Collector Customs Preventive Quetta, and Raza (BS-20), Collector Customs Appraisement Quetta, have been sent to the FBR Headquarters.
