The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed the customs officials not to clear any consignment, even marked as ''diplomatic bags'', without exemption certificate of the ministry of foreign affairs. Sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the ministry of foreign affairs has revised the rules regarding diplomatic bags and access to tarmac by diplomatic courier after discussion in inter-ministerial meeting on December 31 2009.
They said the ministry had been forced to revise the rules regarding diplomatic bags and access to tarmac by diplomatic courier because of prevailing security situation. They said that all diplomatic bags would now pass through normal scanning process, and no mission would be allowed to bring its vehicles to the tarmac, to collect and dispatch their diplomatic bags or any other cargo.
Sources said that the diplomatic bags should carry the seal of sending country, mentioning ''Diplomatic Bag'', and added that the customs officials would only clear permissible items. They said that any consignment in the form of container or crates, even marked as ''diplomatic bag'' could not be cleared unless the authority concerned would produce exemption certificate of the ministry of foreign affairs.
Sources said that if any suspicious item is found during the scanning, the matter would immediately be reported to ministry of foreign affairs, and added that action would be initiated as per Vienna Convention, Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the UN, and Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialised Agencies. Furthermore, they said, access to tarmac/apron would be provided to the concerned mission for incoming and outgoing bags on case to case basis, and the ministry of foreign affairs would recommend such cases.
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