After taking over the charge of Director General I&I-IR in early 2016, Khawaja Tanveer Ahmed initiated a countrywide campaign against the curse of illicit trade of cigarettes.
According to sources, the Directorate General has shown remarkable performance in this sector during tax year 2017 ended on June 30 last. Out of seven directorates in the country, Faisalabad Directorate is leading from the front by seizing 310,420,000 sticks of illicit cigarettes of local brands by taking actions under relevant provisions and rules of Federal Excise Act, 2005 and Sales Tax Act, 1990 against 26 culprits. Amount of revenue involved is Rs 80.258 million; however Rs 3.06 million were recovered. Lahore Directorate was equally good by seizing more than 28,353,000 sticks of illicit cigarettes of local brands, where revenue of Rs 22.31 million was involved. Hyderabad Directorate seized 9,680,000 sticks of illicit cigarettes of local brands involving total revenue of Rs 20.68 million and recovered Rs 1.74 million. Multan Directorate seized more than 4,596,000 sticks of illicit cigarettes of local brands involving total revenue of Rs 12.28 million. The Peshawar Directorate contributed in the campaign by seizing 3,048,000 cigarette sticks that involved Rs 7.44 million of tax revenue, whereas Karachi Directorate seized 2,056,800 sticks of illicit cigarettes involving tax revenue of Rs 7.18 million. In aggregate, the Directorate General of I&I-IR has seized 79,056,200 sticks of illicit cigarettes of local brands that involved tax revenue of Rs 127.83 million of tax revenue during its campaign in tobacco sector during tax year 2017. A few of culprits paid out the tax involved ie Rs 4.8 million. Remaining cases are under adjudication at different RTOs. Despite remarkable performance of the directorate general, there is still a lot of work to do in this regard. However, it is expected that the directorate general will exceed the standards set by it during the tax year 2017-18.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017