RIYADH: Saudi authorities have thwarted more than 1,000 attempts to smuggle prohibited items into the Kingdom during the first half of the year, a report by the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority revealed on Wednesday.

Among the confiscated contraband were more than 126 million narcotic pills, and more than 19,000 kilograms of drugs such as hashish, heroin and cocaine as well as more than 60,000 bottles of wine and more than 81,000 liters of liquor, the report said.

The Authority processed more than 39 million tons of goods coming to the Kingdom with a total value of more than SR302 billion ($80 billion) and more than 36 million tons of goods exported through customs ports with a total value of more than SR128 billion.

According to the authority’s statistics, ports have completed more than 2.3 million import, export, re-export and transit transactions, in addition to completing the procedures of more than 1.1 million containers.

During the same period, customs ports processed more than 1 million departing vehicles and 1.1 million arriving vehicles.

In the same period, the authority received more than 580,000 tax and zakat declarations from all business officials subject to tax regulations, while the regulatory and inspection teams carried out 153,000 inspection visits across the Kingdom’s regions and cities.

These tours resulted in detecting more than 20,000 zakat and tax violations and answering about 9,000 communications through official reporting methods approved by the authority, most notably the VAT application and the website (zatca.gov.sa). 

As part of the authority’s efforts during the first half of 2021 to raise citizens’ awareness about its various regulations and procedures, it held some 60 workshops targeting individuals, interested people and taxpayers.