About 65 percent powerlooms in the country have closed down due to under value clearance of fabrics imported from China and India under CARE system and smuggling.
This was stated by Muhammad Ashfaq, Chairman All Pakistan Power Looms Association during meeting of the FPCCI Standing Committee on Customs & Customs Dry Ports held with Muhammad Tariq Magoon in the chair at Federation House on Wednesday.
Muhammad Ashfaque alleged that the item was also being cleared from Lahore Dry Port at prices much below its value and urged that the item be removed from CARE system and assessed at correct price to provide relief to the local fabrics manufacturers.
The meeting was informed that the customs officials, in order to examine goods under CARE system, open containers and after inspection/examination of goods, the examiners re-stuff the containers carelessly without caring about the delicate nature of goods.
The meeting resolved to request the customs authorities to inform the concerned importers about the exact date of examination of goods so that they may be present at the time of examination to prevent any damage to the goods. It was pointed out that despite assurance that clearance of imported goods under CARE system would be done within 24-hour, the goods are being unduly delayed for three to four days, which results in levy of port demurrage and congestion at port.
It was suggested that if the valuation difference in declared value and assessed value is with 10 to 15 percent the Collectorate should release the consignment after taking security in form of cheque of amount, equivalent to value difference.
The meeting was informed that there was shortage of staff including A/Cs and D/Cs deputed for CARE system as compared to the workload, which affected timely clearance of goods. Further, PRAL was releasing incomplete daily list of imports and exports as it did not contain information about goods cleared under CARE.
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