Pak’s Intelligence Bureau report exposes how different mafia bleeds the battered economy

It also added the detailed remedial measures taken by the IB.The IB also monitored the entire supply chain and mapped out stakeholders and their nefarious role in the disruption of the supply chain vis-a-vis wheat and sugar hoarding and also those hoarding fertilisers being smuggled to Afghanistan.IBs crackdown resulted in the recovery of 47,222 MT fertiliser valuing Rs 2.6 billion, the report said.

A damning report by Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) has exposed how smuggling, tax evasion, drug trade, illegal currency business, and misuse of Afghan transit trade are bleeding the already battered economy, according to a media report.

The detailed report submitted to the government has also highlighted what the agency is doing to “check the economic terrorism threatening Pakistan,” daily ‘The News International’ reported on Thursday.

The IB report to the government becomes significant as earlier in the month, signalling the powerful military’s key role in Pakistan, army chief General Asim Munir held a series of meetings with the business community, promising all-out efforts to bring in foreign investment worth billions of dollars to the cash-strapped country.

The meeting had come on the back of a traders’ strike protesting the soaring cost of living, including higher fuel and utility bills and record depreciation of the Pakistan rupee against the US dollar.

The current economic crisis has resulted in massive inflation across the board. The prices for both petrol and high-speed diesel have crossed the mark of Pakistani rupees 300 resulting in a whole lot of illegal trade.

The IB report mentioned that the annual loss to the national exchequer amounted to at least Rs 225 billion through the illegal supply of Iranian Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants (POL) products alone. As against only illegal sale at roadside petrol outlets, it is now available at regular petrol pumps across Pakistan, it said.

“The volatility in the stock market and imposition of capital gain taxes in real estate and capital markets resulted in investors with black money diverting their capital towards foreign currencies” to capitalize on the exchange rate devaluation, it said.

The IB report also drew attention to how Afghanistan’s annual trade volume gap of USD 4 billion is “met through the drug trade, currency smuggling from Pakistan to Afghanistan” and the “receipts on account of hawala/hundi.” As many as 122 currency smugglers and 40 exchange companies involved in the manipulation of the currency markets were identified.

Drug dealers across Pakistan and 22 trans-national drug networks, some of them making their way into educational institutions in urban centres; tax evasion of around Rs 240 billion with tobacco among the top five sectors; tea imported under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) being smuggled back through reverse cargo into Pakistan, and 49 per cent of the annual demand of tyres in Pakistan being met through smuggling were among the main pointers of the report. It also added the detailed remedial measures taken by the IB.

The IB also monitored the entire supply chain and mapped out stakeholders and their nefarious role in the disruption of the supply chain vis-a-vis wheat and sugar hoarding and also those hoarding fertilisers being smuggled to Afghanistan.

“IB’s crackdown resulted in the recovery of 47,222 MT fertiliser valuing Rs 2.6 billion,” the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)