LAHORE: The Directorate of Customs Investigation and Intelligence has impounded Rs 272 million contraband goods and vehicles in the first half of financial year 2014-15.
The Directorate registered 58 cases of illegal contraband goods and articles involving duty and taxes of Rs 164 million during the period. The Directorate impounded seven vehicles worth Rs 15 million, 222,770 yards of foreign-originated cloth worth Rs 10.1 million involving duty taxes worth Rs 5.5 million.
The Directorate confiscated foreign made tyers and tubes worth Rs 1.9 million involving duty and taxes Rs 1 million while it seized auto-parts worth Rs 8.2 million involving duty and taxes Rs 5.3 million. The customs intelligence investigation held 600 liters of mobil oil worth Rs 0.18 million with a total involvement of duty and taxes worth Rs 0.10 million while it also seized 1,650 dandas cigarettes worth about Rs 1 million. It also held 2,225 electronic goods worth Rs 35 million involving Rs 22 while it seized foreign blankets worth Rs 0.7 million. It also confiscated 1443 tins of pan prag and zafrani patti worth Rs 1 million and gutka worth Rs 0.12 million. The directorate held miscellaneous illegal goods worth Rs 196 million involving total duty and taxes worth Rs 101.
The official sources said that the confiscation is 500 percent more than that of the last financial year 2013-14. They said that due to the strict instruction of DG Lutfullah Virk and directions of Director Imtiaz Khan and additional director Mohsin Rafique and Deputy Director Saad Rabani, the directorate had work hard to arrest the menace of smuggling in the Lahore region. They added that superintendent Rauf Farooqi and his team had also worked professionally in this regard.