Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) here on Tuesday recommended that taxes and other charges must be levied on all goods imported in or transit through Pakistan, for use of infrastructure and to compensate for its deterioration. Such charges shall be, inter alia, used mainly to maintain and support infrastructure of Karachi-Torkham and Karachi-Chaman Roads, it added.
Sources told Business Recorder that the government is committed to imposing a transit fee in US dollars on containers destined for Afghanistan, as presently the Federal Board of Revenue is not collecting any fee or charges from Afghan commercial cargoes or Nato containers.
At present, the FBR is not collecting any money in the form of taxes or fees on the commercial Afghan transit containers under the transit trade agreement. Similarly, the FBR is also not getting any amount of transit on Nato containers for international forces operating in Afghanistan. Thus, no amount has been collected on allowing transit containers to Afghanistan via land route.
Sources said the FBR had introduced an enabling provision in the Customs Act 1969 to collect a transit fee on ISAF/Nato containers, for which a rate of the fee and a method of collection are yet to be finalised. The grant of transit facility has increased Customs facilitation and allied operations manifold.
In order to provide self sustaining infrastructure and services at customs stations and en-route, an enabling provision for collection of transit fee is being provided by adding a new section namely 129A to the Customs Act, 1969. According to the provisions of the section 129A of the Customs Act, a transit fee may be levied on any goods or class of goods in transit across Pakistan to a foreign territory at such rates as the Board may, by notification in the official Gazette, prescribe, it added.
The government is legally empowered to impose a transit fee in US dollars on containers destined for Afghanistan, as presently the FBR is not collecting any fee or charges from Afghan commercial cargoes or Nato/ISAF containers. Sources said damages have been caused to roads and bridges due to constant movement of Afghan and Nato/ISAF containers during transit.
The volume of containers has increased manifold in recent years and to manage this volume the use of Pakistan''s infrastructure especially computerised services, scanners, manpower and its equipment has increased. This is first of its kind of transit levy to be imposed on the Afghan transit trade containers to get compensation, however minimal, against the damage that is caused because of the movement of Afghan transit cargo under the transit trade agreement.
So far, the government has not exercised the powers of levying a transit fee on these consignments under the transit trade agreement. The enabling provision was introduced in the Customs Act during June 2011, but the government has not exercised the powers to notify the fee as per section 129A of the Customs Act, 1969.
Comments
Comments are closed.