Report presented on crackdowns against hoarders, profiteers in Punjab

ISLAMABAD: The monthly report on ongoing crackdowns against hoarders and profiteers in Punjab with the assistance of Tiger Force volunteers was presented in a session jointly chaired by the provincial chief secretary and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar, ARY News reported on Saturday.

It is noteworthy to mention here that the provincial authorities conducted crackdowns across Punjab over the reports of Tiger Force volunteers and seized hoardings of essential commodities including wheat, sugar, flour and ghee worth millions.

The session was attended by secretary industries Zafar Iqbal and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and other high-level officials.

Read: Raids conducted in KP after Punjab to curb inflation, hoarding

During the session, the monthly report on crackdowns against hoarders in Punjab was presented.

It stated that that the authorities seized different commodities from hoarders worth over Rs144 million besides imposing heavy fines on responsible persons worth more than Rs51.4 million and registered 1,288 First Information Reports (FIRs) for overcharging besides arresting 1,200 people during one month.

It read that 25,000 sacks of sugar weighing approximately 1,300 tons were seized which worth more than Rs100 million.

The statistics of actions carried out between April 2020 to October 2020 were also presented in the session.

Read: Tiger Force comes into action against artificial inflation, hoarding

It read that Rs7.1 billion worth hoardings were seized during the period of April 2020 and October 2020, whereas, fines of over Rs596.6 million were imposed against hoarders during the last six months.

The authorities arrested 9,543 responsible persons and registered more than 9,000 FIRs.

Punjab chief secretary appreciated the local administration over the positive outcomes of crackdowns and decided to expedite the series of raids over the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The participants of the session were told that many spots have been spotted where the local administrations would make major recoveries within a few days.

PM Imran Khan had given the first task to the Tiger Force volunteers for discouraging hoarding while chairing a high-level session regarding the ongoing efforts for price controls.