The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in Pakistan has taken a significant step to combat smuggling and ensure the availability of essential commodities by granting anti-smuggling powers to Pakistan Rangers, Frontier Corps Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This move, announced through SRO.(I)/521(I)/2023, amends a previous regulation (S.R.O. 901(1)/2023) related to these powers.
The newly empowered Pakistan Rangers and Frontier Corps can now work alongside customs officials at Inter-Provincial Joint Check Posts (IPJCPs) to enforce laws against smuggling and hoarding of essential items like sugar, urea, wheat, and wheat flour. These anti-smuggling powers will primarily be exercised within fifty kilometers of international borders and at specified checkpoints.
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The areas where these powers can be applied exclude city municipal limits, customs areas, customs stations, ports, border customs stations, international airports, and bonded warehouses. Notably, the officers of Pakistan Rangers and Frontier Corps can also act against smuggling within city municipal limits and at IPJCPs in the bordering districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adjoining Afghanistan.
This initiative aims to curb the smuggling of essential and other critical commodities both within and outside Pakistan from November 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. By granting these additional powers to law enforcement agencies, the FBR seeks to strengthen its efforts to combat smuggling and ensure a steady supply of essential goods, benefitting the nation as a whole.