Kakar takes notice of POL products’ smuggling under garb of Afghan transit trade,
Islamabad_Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has said that smuggling was also a major cause of Pakistan’s economic problems, as the cash-strapped country tries to tame inflation and improve investors’ confidence.
The prime minister has summoned a meeting in this regard later today. PM Kakar has directed the officials of relevant ministries to give practicable suggestions to discourage smuggling during the meeting.
According to an estimate, the country is suffering Rs300 billion loss due to smuggling of transit trade and petroleum products. Sources said most of the items imported under the transit trade are being sold in Pakistan.
He ordered that the border markets with Iran should be made more viable so that trade could be done with proper documents.
He said smuggling was causing a loss of billions of rupees to the national economy and it was critical to end the problem of smuggling.
The PM was told that smuggling was reduced by 40 percent due to the untiring efforts of law enforcement institutions. He was told about the strategy of the law enforcement departments against smuggling.
Caretaker federal ministers for trade Gohar Ejaz, minister for interior Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, minister for petroleum Muhammad Ali, Advisor to PM Ahmed Cheema, federal secretaries, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue and high level officers of law enforcement agencies attended the meeting. Provincial chief secretaries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and Inspector General Police attended the meeting through video link.
The prime minister was briefed that owing to the smuggling of petroleum products, heavy financial losses are being incurred on national exchequer and oil marketing companies. PM Kakar has summoned top officials of FBR, finance, trade and petroleum to take part in the meeting.
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