GUJRANWALA City News

Smuggled items hit the shelves unchecked
From Azam Butt
GUJRANWALA: It is a reality that the lucrative business of smuggling remains unchecked in the country, which deprives the government of huge revenue and disturbs the economy.
In this scenario, the legal imports and local industry cannot compete with the low-priced smuggled items. But smuggling brings a ‘rewarding’ share for the officials appointed to check the crime and hence the strict laws are no deterrent for the beneficiaries.
It is an open secret that the many transporters carry smuggle items from Karachi and the northern parts of the country to others areas. They dumped these items along the GT Road too in the Gujranwala region that includes six districts - Gujranwala, Gujrat Sialkot, Narowal, Mandi Bahauddin and Hafizabad.
The smuggled items are openly available for consumers without any check as the affordable prices makes the citizens patronise, unintentionally, the smuggling business.
This sustained trend is because of a simple reason. There is a long chain of beneficiaries, right from the smugglers to the consumers connected by traders, retailers, the government officials supposed to control the crime, transporters and others.
The most productive smuggled products that hit the shelves are obviously the consumer goods including cloth, ready-made garments, hosiery, electronic items, mobile phones, cosmetics (from soap and shampoo to perfume and lipstick), spices (garam masala), beverages, canned food, cigarettes and scores of others.
Interesting thing is these items are available at not only at departmental stores, main wholesale and retail markets but also at the small shops in the city neighbourhoods and small towns. Again the reason is the same. The consumer prefers low-priced quality foreign products over the local items which makes the domestic industries suffer, which faces a plethora of taxes and high cost of inputs, including electricity.
One can safely argue that smuggling is one of the main reasons behind the alarming state of affairs of local industry. And yet another aspect is the parallel economy boosted by the smuggling. In this context, the undocumented economy is an unavoidable result, depriving the state of much-need massive revenue and inflating the overall price hike in the country.
When contacted, the superintendent (Land Customs) Gujranwala, however, denied connivance of his staff in smuggling and said pickets had been at highways to catch and spot transportation of smuggled goods. They were confiscated whenever detected with the criminals booked under the relevant laws, he added.