Director General, Intelligence and Investigation-FBR, Shaukat Ali apprised the Minister of State and Chairman, FBR about the working, core functions, and achievements of the Directorate General especially in the recent five months after his joining as the Director General during which remarkable results have been achieved. The focused areas, interalia, included a robust strategy to curb the menace of smuggling, effective monitoring of the goods being cleared from different Customs Stations across the country and unearthing of the cases with irrefutable leads towards money laundering. CIF value of the goods seized during the last five months is Rs 3.6 billion which is 52% higher in comparison to the corresponding period of the last year. Similarly, evasion of duty/taxes to the tune of Rs 5.1 billion was detected, registering growth of 1195% in comparison to the corresponding period. Four major cases of money laundering have been detected involving the laundering of a cumulative amount of US$ 20.6 million. Solid evidence relating to laundering of US$ 6.65 million has already been generated by the Directorate General in these cases.
The Minister of State lauded the efforts of the Directorate General in curbing smuggling and promoting the genuine trade. He categorised the performance of the Directorate General as "an eye opener" for FBR and all its field formations. Haroon Akhtar reiterated the commitment of the current regime regarding zero tolerance for fiscal frauds including money laundering.-PR