The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is evolving a concrete and foolproof strategy to get rid of menace of under-invoicing and smuggling through the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) once for all, as both these malpractice's are hitting the country's economy badly.
The ATT agreement with the Afghanistan government that was signed in 1965 is being renegotiated as the Pakistan government believes the issue is not only hitting the revenue generation, but also heavily impacting the competitiveness of the country.
The FBR Member Customs Munir Ahmad Qureshi revealed this while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Wednesday. The LCCI former presidents Mian Anjum Nisar, Mian Muzaffar Ali and former Vice Presidents Shahzad Ali Malik and Aftab Ahmad Vohra also spoke on the occasion.
The FBR Member said that there was no second opinion about it that policy reforms were badly needed to check the misuse of ATT and the government had taken up the issue at the highest level to ensure necessary amendments in the ATT agreement.
He said that the government wanted to promote the local industry and that was the only reason that ATT agreement was being renegotiated. Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry stressed the need for a cordial, professional and working relationship between the private and the public sectors for resource mobilisation and generation of initiatives through direct and indirect taxation measures.
The harassment associated with assessment and revenue collection exercise has in fact hit the very basis of the business confidence discouraging the pursuance of healthy economic activity at national levels. He said that order to boost the international trade, delays in processing and dispatch of consignments must be avoided by taking sincere and appropriate measures with the intention to reduce time taken in the process of valuation and assessment of the goods.
Formulation of simplified and a business friendly procedure is the need of the hour, and their implementation is a prerequisite. He said that existing procedures should be reviewed and revamped in consultation with the stakeholders, he added.
The LCCI President said the rate of valuation of the imported items should be uniformed and same for the particular goods on all ports of the country. As presently valuations on different rates are in practice on different ports. The rate applied at Lahore is far different than that of rate applied at Karachi port.
Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry said that smuggling had always disturbed the business and economic environment in Pakistan therefore it was suggested to reduce the duty up to 10 percent on all the items prone to smuggling. He said that the government should also ensure a foolproof checking system to have a microscopic check on the misuse of consignments of ATT.
'There is a common complaint of theft of cargo at the ports, such practices should be dealt with iron hand,' he said. The Customs Department should engage all stakeholders especially chambers and concerned associations in the process of evaluation.
He said that non-acceptance of valuation evidence of other ports at Lahore Dry Port was creating problems thus the valuation evidence of other ports must be accepted at the Lahore Dry Port. The issue of delay in examination for valuation purpose must be given serious attention.
He also suggested that inclusion of weight of retail packing in assessable value of items being assessed on weight basis should be stopped immediately. Demurrage should be charged keeping in mind the reasons of delay either caused by Customs Department or the Importer, he said. He added the time limit should start from the time of dispatch of cargo from the port and not from the loading of cargo, to calculate the demurrage period.
Comments
Comments are closed.