The Federal Board of Revenue has carried out a major operation by sealing cigarette factories owned by political families and exposing tax evasion worth billions of rupees.
According to details, on the strict instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the FBR launched its biggest crackdown under a zero-tolerance policy against tax evasion worth billions of rupees in the cigarette industry.
Sources said that despite intense political pressure, the FBR took indiscriminate action against cigarette factories owned by various influential political families and exposed tax evasion worth billions of rupees.
Government sources said a record 710 operations were carried out against illegal and smuggled cigarettes by March of the current financial year.
During the crackdown, the Regional Tax Office Peshawar raided the warehouse of a major tobacco company in Mardan in November 2025. Despite armed resistance, officials seized 200 cartons of cigarettes linked to tax evasion and sealed the factory.
In addition, two owners of the company were taken into custody over the illegal shifting of machinery. In December 2025, machinery worth millions of rupees from the same factory, along with raw material worth billions of rupees seized in the past, had also been confiscated.
Sources made a major disclosure regarding the cigarette mafia, saying that some years ago, after a strict crackdown in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, several major tax-evading companies shifted their units to Azad Kashmir to avoid security scrutiny and taxes.
Cigarette factory owners have also started shifting heavy cigarette-manufacturing machinery to interior Sindh to escape the attention of tax authorities. At present, several cigarette units are secretly producing illegal and untaxed cigarettes at night and supplying them across the country, while the FBR is now tightening its grip against them.
