Oil smuggling inflicts Rs150 bln loss to economy: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan was told on Friday that oil smuggling was inflicting an annual economic loss of around Rs 150 billion to the country.

Chairing a meeting to review the measures to curb smuggling on Friday, PM Khan said the oil smuggling and and its sale at 2094 filling stations across the county were causing an irreparable loss to the country’s economy, a PM Office press release said.

Khan said that steps to contain smuggling measures would bring in revenue for the government to spend on the welfare of the common man.

The prime minister instructed strict action against the people involved in the smuggling, the statement said.

Federal ministers Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Senator Shibli Faraz, Commerce Advisor Abdul Razzak Dawood, Specials Assistants to PM Shahzad Akbar and Dr Waqar Masood, federal secretaries, Federal Board of Revenue chairman, and senior civil and military officers attended the meeting.

The provincial chief secretaries and inspector generals of Frontier Corps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan participated through video link.