A company of the United States would provide technical assistance to the customs authorities for installing an "Advance Passengers Information System" at the Karachi airport, through which customs officials would be able to access passengers' data.
Sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday that the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) would purchase the system from the 'Sabre' a foreign company, at a cost of $1,35,000, which would help in checking smuggling. The data would also be used to identify khapias.
They said the board has approved the proposal floated by the Collector of Customs Preventive, Karachi. Under the arrangement, the pilot project would be started at the Karachi airport where customs would have direct access to the data on incoming and outgoing passengers.
The board had repeatedly taken up the matter of data-sharing with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to strengthen its Passengers Information System (PIS). But, the agency had refused time and again to share its data with the customs authorities.
Sources said the FIA may give passengers-related information on case to case basis to the tax authorities, but refused to hand over the complete database to the CBR. The information pertaining to specific individuals would not be sufficient for the CBR. The exercise of obtaining data on an individual from the agency will be time consuming giving ample time to any person to escape till the CBR receives credible information from the FIA. Now, the CBR would install the system with the help of a foreign company to have 24 hour access to the passenger's database, sources added.
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