Regional Tax Office (RTO), Peshawar has seized 1,50,000 sticks of counterfeit and non-duty paid cigarettes of various brands during a raid in Karkhano Market, Hayatabad. The counterfeit and non-duty paid cigarettes included 555, Pine and Milano. The Tobacco Monitoring Squad of RTO Peshawar was headed by Syed Zubair Shah, Deputy Commissioner Inland Revenue.

Similarly, the squad of the RTO Peshawar also carried out raids against local cigarette manufacturers and seized 28 cartons of local counterfeit cigarettes in District Swabi. Each carton is comprised of 10,000 cigarette sticks. Talking to this scribe, Commissioner Income Tax, Hameed-ur-Rehman confirmed the seizure of counterfeit and non-duty paid cigarettes. He said that the squad had also seized a Suzuki van fully loaded of non-duty paid filter rods.

The cigarettes seized from Karkhano Market are shifted to Regional Office while the seized counterfeit cigarettes and Suzuki van have been shifted to Mardan Office. The Commissioner Inland Revenue said that they had sought the documents of both the vehicle and filter rods, but despite the passage of the deadline the documents were not presented to them.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017