Seven Customs officials sacked over alleged involvement in smuggling wheat

Sacked officials include four collectors, additional collectors and deputy commissioners.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Initiating a crackdown against those responsible for the wheat crisis that led to soaring prices of wheat flour across the country, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sacked seven Customs officials over alleged involvement in smuggling wheat.

According to sources, the sacked officials include four collectors, additional collectors and deputy commissioners. The sacked officials were part of the Torkham and Chaman Customs Operations.

Sources further said that Customs officers issued concession certificates without verification and made manual entry instead of computerized.

The government has also written a letter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe into the crisis so as to bring to light all those involved in the fraud.

Prime Minister Imran Khan himself, during his public addresses, had hinted at the working of certain mafia within the customs under the patronage of influential political clout which in the past also stymied performance of the Federal Board of Revenue.

He had repeatedly expressed his zero tolerance over the issue of corruption in all walks of life and resolved to bring transparency in the public sector functioning. All the ministries and divisions had been directed to take above board action against all those involved in corruption.

Such robust drive under the PTI government’s manifesto had again given a clear and loud message to all officials that no incidence of corruption would be tolerated and swift punitive action would be taken against them.

Upon the basis of concrete reports of the customs intelligence, the FBR acknowledged removal of five senior officers along with the dealing officials from the key positions at the head of Customs operations and regional Collectorates in Peshawar and Quetta. This action has been taken to stem the illegal flow of foreign origin goods without payment of due amount of duty and taxes into the country.

The scourge of smuggling and tax evasion at the country’s borders directly led to increase in prices of daily commodities, thus badly affecting the common man.

According to details as provided by FBR, at the Torkham customs-station in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Afghan goods vehicles were entering and leaving the station without filing the mandatory Goods Declaration (GD) for import clearance and without paying any duty and taxes.

Only fake GDs were used for the gate passes. Besides, assessment of duty and taxes was not being done properly, giving undue benefit to the importers, at the expense of public exchequer.

The report revealed that so far, 355 such vehicles were identified as having managed to escape the mandatory filing of GD and payment of duty and taxes due to collusion and corruption at that station.

Similarly,discrepancies were reported in import clearance of prime quality iron bars, white spirit, and Afghani fruits at customs-stations in the Balochistan province.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had constituted an inquiry committee to probe wheat/flour-related controversy, and identify and fix responsibility for the crisis that has gripped the country in recent days.

The committee had been asked to “identify and fix responsibility, if any, on any individual/officer/organisation, including any purported benefit to a private party.” The committee, comprising Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) director general as convener, and representative of Intelligence Bureau (IB) not below BS-20/21, Punjab Anti-Corruption director general as members and any other member(s) as the convener may opt, will complete the inquiry within the fortnight and submit report to the prime minister by February 6.

The committee will also suggest a way forward for future course of action. “The inquiry report shall, inter alia, include: identification of cause; circumstances leading to the wheat/flour related controversy; assessment/projection of future stock leading to allowing export of wheat/flour products and subsequent imposition of ban on exports; management of wheat stocks, within federal government and provinces, and coordination with provinces; and any other issue, deemed appropriate, related to the wheat/flour related controversy,” the notification stated. The development comes as the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the federal and provincial authorities on a petition challenging the recent hike in prices of wheat flour.