Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Chairman Abdullah Yusuf has said the US has allowed Pakistan to install a new automated system for clearance of goods en route to this country which will eliminate the condition of pre-shipment and physical presence of goods.
Through this facility, which is called 'CST 3', images of goods will be sent to the US, which is market for Pakistan's 70 percent exports, for clearance by the authorities, he told reporters after attending a seminar, 'dry ports of tomorrow,' organised by The Elite News, in collaboration with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), This system is being installed at Port Qasim, Karachi, and will be operational by December this year, he added. The CBR chief said that Pakistan is the first country where this experiment is being made which is a big achievement.
To a question regarding upward revision of the revenue target for the current financial year, he said there was no possibility of it.
About the outgoing fiscal year, he said the CBR collected Rs 712 billion against the target of Rs 690 billion which is Rs 22 billion or 3.6 percent higher than the target. This also indicates buoyancy in the economic growth and improvement in efficiency of the tax collecting machinery, he claimed.
About setting up a new dry port in Lahore, Abdullah Yusuf said there was no such plan under consideration. However, the government had approved a dry port for Sheikhupura, while the old Lahore dry port will be shifted to Raiwind Road from Mughalpura.
Earlier, addressing the seminar, Yusuf said: "We should take initiatives by discussing things and sharing views we could improve the system to keep pace with the fast changing world scenario." He also stressed the need for shifting business from families to corporatisation which is vital to be competitive in the world market.
"It is unfortunate that in the past we lost a lot in terms of business due to high tariff walls, quota system and bonus vouchers system, etc, which created inefficiency at every level. We generally undermine the capabilities of our people, but the reality is that we are capable of facing challenges. Now we have to bring transparency that is first step toward changing the whole scenario. Now what we have to do is to organise ourselves and create a transparent and competitive environment", he said. Abdullah Yusuf said experience-wise and education-wise, Pakistani people are second to none in the world, he remarked.
"Now it is time of consolidation and economies of size and we have to achieve this. We have to achieve economy of scale to reduce cost of doing business", he said.
The CBR chief said the government at its level is doing a lot to create an environment where businessmen and investors could be facilitated and the cost of doing business could be reduced. For this purpose, the government is undertaking a project called "National Trade Corridor", which is aimed at achieving improvement in logistics facilities, road infrastructure as well as making the relevant agencies such as customs more efficient. This is a totally automated system which is under way in collaboration with all the stakeholders, he maintained.
Talking about subject of the seminar, Abdullah Yusuf said that in future every factory will be a dry port having all required facilities at its doorsteps. Now there is no future of public sector, adding: "This is a paradigm shift in what we have been doing in the past. The change is a psychological barrier, which is a world over phenomenon so its acceptance takes time. "Now we have to catch up with reality."
According to him, staff productivity in Pakistan was lowest in the world which must be improved and the government was doing its utmost in this direction, he added.
World Bank senior specialist on transport Amir Zafar Samdani spoke on "from dry ports to distribution centers'.
He said that logistic cost in Pakistan was very high. It was 29 percent as compared to UNCTAD top ten average. According to him, major internal challenges for Pakistan are domestic transport and IT development.
Underlining the importance of private sector, he said it was key to improve exports. He said that current poor performance of the storage and dry ports services was a major past problem which needs to be addressed.
Modernisation of trucking system could create room for another 100,000 trucks in the country, he said, adding that dry ports essentially subset of distribution industry.
For trade, Samdani recommended that trade should recognise and develop storage FFI and transport industry linkages. It should also segmentalise short and long haul markets and create market for best route/value logistics. What the government needs to do is to facilitate businessmen and provide appropriate tariff and taxation structure.
Member CBR (Customs) Shahid Rahim Shaikh, in his presentation on "customs role and business of dry ports', said that running ports is the business of the operators and not the public sector. Earlier, the message of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was also read out.
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