Backing FBR operationalisation: Federal Cabinet approves setting up of ‘NTC’

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet has approved establishment of a new agency namely National Targeting Centre (NTC) aimed at extending requisite support to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for its early operationalisation, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

At a recent meeting, Revenue Division apprised the federal cabinet that traditional methods of enforcing border controls could no longer match the increasing volumes of goods, passengers and vehicular traffic, entering or exiting national boundaries.

Technology-enabled platforms like the National Targeting Centre (NTC) which allowed collaborative inter-agency border controls, were therefore becoming important in facilitation of cross-border movements as well as in smarter enforcement.

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According to the United Nations office on Drugs and crime (UNODC), the NTC “employs advanced technologies and intelligence analysis to identify and prioritise potential threats related to the movement of passengers and cargo.

Through comprehensive risk assessments, it enables border control agencies to allocate resources efficiently, respond effectively to high-risk targets and foster collaboration among various government agencies.“ Through the NTC, various agencies like customs, FIA, Immigration, ANF and other LEAs would be required to share information and profiles for coordinated targeting to effectively curb crimes like smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering etc.

The cabinet was further apprised that globally, NTCs are hosted and managed by customs administrations as ’lead agencies ’due to their broader anti-smuggling mandate and jurisdiction over the cross border movement of persons and goods across land, sea and air. Often, these centres provide the needed platform for multi-agency contribution, enabling physical co-location of different agencies through their respective liaison officers.

The Revenue Division highlighted that customs as the lead agency had successfully implemented Pakistan Single Window(PSW), which, through the Integrated Risk Management System, allowed other government agencies to target their respective risks in international trade. This system could be leveraged as one of the main pillars in timely establishment of the NTC in Pakistan.

Moreover, during the meeting of the Anti-Smuggling Steering Committee chaired by the Prime Minister on October 17,2019, the FBR was assigned the task for integration of anti-smuggling/trade data with a central database.

It was apprised that the FBR intended to establish a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) under the customs wing for NTC with technical assistance from development partners.

Drawing from international best practices, the said PMU would engage with all stakeholders for developing and implementing a detailed project design document for establishing NTC including a legal framework, governance and operational set-up as well as a robust Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform. It was informed that an inter-ministerial meeting in this regard had already been held on August 24, 2024, bringing all relevant stakeholders on board.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024