Rawalpindi Customs & police seize smuggled cigarettes valued at Rs8 M.
The Shehbaz government attempts to stop the illegal trade in tobacco goods in Pakistan have achieved a significant triumph with the discovery of smuggled cigarettes.
The cigarettes were discovered unpaid for by customs taxes in a warehouse in the Ganjamundi region.
In effort to reduce smoking, the government recently raised cigarette rates, the illegal trade of cigarettes continues to be a significant source of income loss for the government.
After receiving a tip from a local person, the police took action. The cigarettes were in boxes and prepared for sale when the police searched the warehouse. The cigarettes were all foreign brands that weren’t purchased legally.
The warehouse owner has been arrested, and authorities are looking into how the cigarettes were brought into the nation illegally. Also, they are looking into who the intended purchasers of the smokes were.
These actions are the consequence of orders from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to stop the country illicit tobacco trade. Advocates for health claim that the Federal Board of Revenue Track and Trace system has successfully reduced illicit commerce to less than 15% of total trade.
They advise all businesses to implement this technique in order to gain more advantages. The tobacco business manipulates the exaggerated amount of illegal trade to persuade decision-makers to refrain from raising taxes in line with inflation.
Annual GDP Report
An annual economic cost of Rs615 billion, or 1.6% of Pakistan GDP, incurred due to diseases associated with tobacco use. The tobacco business audaciously opposes any actions meant to lessen the impact.
Despite the fact that it significantly harms both public health and the economy. The tobacco business uses the problem of illegal trade to block increases in tobacco taxes, activists emphasized, and this practice happens every budget season.
These businesses knowingly understate their output and trade unregistered goods on the black market, costing the government coffers billions of dollars.
Imran cited a recent study on illegal cigarettes in Pakistan, which found that 15% of the packs contained illegal smokes.
Through stronger regulations, raids, and the widespread implementation of trade and trace, the government has finally begun to rein in illicit trade.
We welcome the government efforts, and the measures will help raise tobacco industry revenue while simultaneously reducing cigarette use.
To address Pakistan economic difficulties, the tobacco sector allegedly conducts cutting-edge research. The industry manufacturing of deadly goods, which endanger Pakistan health and economy, is actually the sole innovative feature of it.
