The Pakistan Customs Department has always remained the front runner for modernisation, reforms and automation. Many people see customs as a regulatory and enforcement agency for the collection of taxes and enforcement of law which only keeps putting up tariff and non-tariff barriers. As such, any delays in clearance of goods for import or export can affect the movement of goods to and from the international markets.
However, closer analysis will reveal that the customs department has always balanced these roles with providing traders facilitation through a continuous process of modernisation and automation of its functions and processes to make them traders friendly, simple and efficient.
Being the front line government agency at the borders and the country's ports and airports, the Customs Department is entrusted with multifarious roles which are not confined to its central functions of revenue collection and enforcement of customs laws alone. The Pakistan Customs is the only government agency which operates round the clock 24x7 to facilitate trade.
It implements policies and procedures framed by other departments relating to business and trade. For example, the Ministry of Commerce formulates the import and export trade policies but it is actually implemented by the Customs Department. Similarly, concession and exemptions for the promotion of export trade, protection of local competitive industry, import of raw materials, industrial chemicals, machinery and other inputs for manufacturing are all regulated by customs through an intensive process of valuation, classification and assessment of duties.
The protection of supply chain for businesses is a function that the Customs Department performs by speedy clearance of goods through automation. The international treaties and agreements like those under the WTO eg the free trade agreements and preferential trading agreements are all regulated by the Customs Department. The customs statistical data is used by a host of government departments, like the State Bank of Pakistan, Commercial Banks, Bureau of Statistics, the Income.
Tax Department, the Sales Tax Department, the Federal Excise Department, the Provincial Excise and Taxation Departments, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce etc, for formulating their policies and performing of analysis of trade patterns, balance of payments, exchange controls, foreign direct investment and measuring national income statistics like gross domestic product etc.
Pakistan is a member of WCO and WTO which prescribe best international practices for facilitating trade through simplification of procedures and automation of business processes. The Pakistan Customs over the period of time has adopted best practices with a view to facilitate trade by reducing dwell time and also to secure revenue. The efforts of the department are to create a healthy balance between facilitation and control. Another issue relates to minimising contacts between taxpayers and tax collators.
These issues could be addressed through modernisation and automation of business processes. Under the guidance of the Board, the Customs Department has been striving hard since last so many years to phase wise replace all outdated and manual processes through automation.
Simultaneously, the Department of Post Clearance Audit was created by the Board which plays crucial role in creating requisite deterrence. Gone are the days when few hundred GDs used to be filed which could be managed by customs manually. With phenomenal increase in volume of trade (both imports and exports) in recent years and tremendous increase in the numbers of declarations filed, manual processing of declarations and documents have become almost impossible. So the solution is effective and efficient Web based Customs Clearance to be supported by Robust Risk Management System and Post Clearance Audit.
(The writer is Chief Collector of Customs (South).)
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