Customs police have seized four trucks carrying cigarettes smuggled from Europe, Customs Collector Tauseef Ahmed said at a press conference at the Custom House on Monday.
He said that the trucks were carrying 1,100 macro boxes of cigarettes branded in the UK. They had been hidden at a room owned by Rashid Goods, a private company in Ghalla Mandi. The cigarettes were to be distributed in various cities. The boxes had not been stamped by tax and excise officials. The consignment of cigarettes was worth Rs55 million, Ahmed said.
“Investigations are underway to determine the main culprits in the matter,” Ahmed said, “They will have to pay 500 per cent of the evaded tax as punishment for smuggling.”
The storage in charge and the driver of a car accompanying the trucks have been arrested. “We had been tailing the trucks since they entered Punjab two days ago. But someone tipped the smugglers off.” Ahmed said that some samples of the cigarettes had been sent to the Narcotics Department to check if they carried any narcotics. The smugglers had been operating from Balochistan, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2013.