Sale of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes

According to a Recorder report, the cigarette industry is distressed over the unchecked availability of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes in the market. The illegal activity is causing harm not only to local manufacturers, but also to smokers and the Federal Board of Revenue.
Unsuspecting consumers buying counterfeit products do not know what they are getting, and the government loses substantial amounts of revenue due to large-scale marketing of both fake and smuggled cigarettes. Notably, Pakistan is a signatory to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, under which cigarette packaging is banned from carrying such misleading words as 'light', 'low tar' and 'mild', and manufacturers are required to print health warnings that must include pictograms.
The purpose, of course, is to inform the people about the health hazards of smoking. Those producing fake cigarettes use substandard tobacco, paper and filters, thus causing more harm to human health than otherwise associated with smoking.
Cigarettes are heavily taxed to discourage people from smoking. Multiple taxes on the industry include 63 percent Federal Excise Duty on retail price, 16 percent Sales Tax on locally manufactured as well as imported brands. Additionally, one percent Excise Duty is charged on retail price. Imported cigarettes are subject to 35 percent Customs Duty and 15 percent Luxury Duty.
These taxes fetch substantial amounts of revenue for the government. In fiscal year 2010-11, for instance, the FBR collected Rs 58.50 billion from the tobacco industry. But considering that counterfeiting and smuggling is rampant in the sector, there is lot more revenue to be collected.
The main responsibility for so much waste of revenue lies squarely on the shoulders of the FBR's customs intelligence directorate. It should not be difficult for them to uncover production units making copies of premium brands. Stopping the sale of smuggled cigarettes may be even easier. It is well-known that the main conduit of smuggling is the Afghan border. Most of the illicit items are smuggled from the UAE either via Bandar Abbas in Iran or through the Karachi Port as part of the Afghan Transit Trade.
Some of the ATT items never enter Afghanistan, others re-enter this country. If the concerned people cannot stop the smuggled consignments at the border, they can still catch the culprits. It does not take much to tell the difference between locally manufactured and foreign-made cigarettes that are openly sold in both the wholesale markets and retail outlets. The local ones bear warning inscriptions in Urdu along with specific pictograms, foreign-made don't. Everything is out in the open, those that are supposed to check them do not seem to care.