Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved establishment of Customs Authority to curb smuggling of goods worth billions of rupees taking place on the borders of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa every year.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, she gave details of the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on the menace of smuggling.
During the meeting, different measures were considered to stop smuggling, she said adding customs check posts in the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan would be improved.
She said coordination would be increased among different agencies over customs check posts on the borders of merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan along with Iran and Afghanistan. On the check posts, personnel of different agencies are deployed at present, she added.
She said the Customs Authority would mainstream the trade on borders and build a database with the latest technology.
The special assistant to prime minister said those involved in illegal trade across the borders would be given alternative jobs and economic zones would be established in these areas. The youth in these areas would be given vocational training and laborers would be sent abroad for jobs, she added.
The special assistant said that the move is expected to bring confidence among the investors including the legal importers and industrialists as the grey economy will be capped to a large extent. The meeting was informed that Pakistan face annual loss of around $6.94bn including $3.47bn in terms of revenue loss due to smuggling, but the real impact on the economy was much higher as local production becomes costly while cheaper smuggled products are sold in the market.
"This has led to de-industrialisation in the country over the years," she said and also highlighted that the PM had taken the issue of smuggling with the provinces and the army few months earlier.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019