ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has seized 1.78 million smuggled cigarettes worth Rs79m in a single day across the country during a major crackdown on smuggled goods.

The foreign-branded cigarettes were seized in Karachi, Multan, and D.I. Khan within the last 24 hours, according to an official statement released on Wednesday.

Four operations were conducted in three regions while Customs Intelligence Karachi carried out two major operations early on Wednesday.

The first operation near Bolton Market resulted in the seizure of 250,000 foreign-brand cigarettes worth Rs10m. In the second operation in Karachi’s Saddar area, 400,000 cigarettes worth Rs25m were seized.

Intelligence-based operations were also carried out in Multan and D.I. Khan. Customs Intelligence seized 1.05m smuggled cigarettes worth Rs40m in Multan and 40,000 smuggled cigarettes worth Rs4m in D.I. Khan.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2023