ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Customs under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior and with the active collaboration of the provincial governments, police, law enforcement agencies (LEAs), and the intelligence agencies, successfully launched its counter-smuggling operation against illegal/unauthorised petroleum retail outlets from Monday.
Officials told Business Recorder that the drive is targeted at outlets causing the national exchequer losses to the tune of billions of rupees annually, and omens good for the national economy, ailing oil refineries, struggling oil marketing companies, safety of vehicles, and prospective foreign and domestic investments.
Punjab leads the nationwide campaign on the first day, where a total of 89 illegal/unauthorised petroleum outlets/petrol pumps were sealed and notices to another 23 were issued.
The District Enforcement Teams comprising representatives from the Customs, the District Administration, the police, Department of Industries and LEAs detained 273,128 litres of petrol and 278,939 litres of high-speed diesel (HSD) valuing more than Rs50m in addition to the sealed properties worth over billions of rupees.
The chief secretary Punjab, Inspector General of Police Punjab and the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Momin Agha extended their full support to the Chief Collector Customs Enforcement, Faiz Chaddar in achieving substantial progress on the first day of the operation.
Pakistan Customs, the lead agency for the operation, under supervision of the Chief Collector Enforcement sealed a total of 29 POL retail outlets in the Lahore Division, and recovered 104,283 litres of petrol and 107,398 litres of HSD from these outlets.
More than 60 percent of the outlets sealed in the Lahore Division were present in Sheikhupura District and the Nankana Sahab district.
Similarly, a total of 44 POL retail outlets were sealed across the Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, DG Khan, and Bahawalpur divisions, and nearly 126,000 litres of petrol and in excess of 100,000 litres of HSD was retrieved from the various sites.
The Multan Division alone saw sealing of 12 POL retail outlets, and detention of almost 40,000 litres of petrol and nearly 21,000 litres of the HSD.
In the Rawalpindi Division, five illegal/unauthorised POL retail outlets were sealed and in excess of 15,000 litres of petrol and nearly 20,000 litres of HSD were taken into custody.
Likewise, a total of 11 illegal/unauthorised POL retail outlets were sealed in the Gujranwala Division, and 26,000 litres of petrol and more than 40,000 litres of HSD were seized.
It is expected that all outlets operating illegally or in an unauthorised manner within the province would be looked into by the end of the week, if not earlier, the officials added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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