Goods declarations completion prior to customs exam on second appraisement a must: CBR

The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has said that all goods declarations (GDs) should be completed before the customs examination on second appraisement to generate speedy revenue before the end of 2003-04 fiscal year.
The incentive will ensure clearance of goods without examination. This information was conveyed to the Karachi Customs Agents Group (KCAG) President Sultan Mahmood by the Additional Collector of Appraisement.
He said that under the normal procedure, first appraisement was essential for completion of all goods declaration (GDs), which meant that the GDs would be completed after examination of goods to determine the nature of items and their value.
The completion of GDs on second appraisement meant that clearance was allowed before the examination, he added.
Sultan Mahmood told Business Recorder that he had informed the Additional Collector that the directive was not acceptable to the KCAG in case of iron and steel scrap in which there was great risk of import of banned items as well as miscellaneous items, which had a wide range of duty slab, giving chances of wrong declaration.
He said that if the iron scrap was cleared on the basis of second appraisement and some contravention was detected on examination, the customs would blame the customs agents and take action against them.
Hence the completion of GDs of iron scrap was not acceptable to the KCAG, he said.
Sultan Mahmood further said that the KCAG had suggested that five percent variation in value of goods might be allowed in the interest of generating maximum revenue by June 30.
He said the Principal Appraisers of all customs groups be empowered to waive five percent variation in value, and added under the present practice, files regarding variation in value circulated among various officers, which consumed a lot of time obstructing revenue due to the government.
It may be pointed out that the customs has already allowed 10 percent variation in weight of all export consignments in the interest of swift export shipments.
The facility was allowed on a request from the KCAG President, who held a detailed meeting with Collector of Export Javed Kazi.