Clearance of diplomats'' consignments: FBR to cross-verify exemption certificates

In a major development to check clearance of diplomats'' consignments, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to process the goods declarations (GDs) filed by the diplomatic missions and embassies under ''green channel'' facility through Web-Based One Customs (WEBOC) to cross verify their tax exemption certificates from Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that previously there was no mechanism in place to check the authenticity of the exemption certificates submitted by the diplomatic missions during clearance of their imported consignments under the Pakistan Customs Computerised System (PACCs). Now, the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be enhanced to check the credibility of the exemption certificates submitted by the diplomatic missions.
Under the new Risk-Based Management System of the WEBOC, the GDs filed by the diplomatic missions will be processed under ''green channel'' of the WEBOC. As a precautionary measure, the FBR will provide a screen to the Foreign Office which will feed details of exemption certificates directly into the system. At the same time, the Foreign Office will also scan the exemption certificates and attached the same to the system. This would reduce the delay in the clearance of consignments of diplomatic missions operating in Pakistan.
In the past, exemption certificates were not verified under the old system and diplomatic consignment were cleared under ''green channel'' without any reconciliation or cross checking mechanism of exemption certificates. The diplomatic missions were themselves engaged in submission of the exemption certificates and there was no system for cross checking of such exemption certificates.
These certificates were supposed to be collected by the Terminal Operators, but practically no one ever checked whether these certificates were genuine or not. As per new system, Ministry of Foreign Affairs would also be empowered to hold any container through system where there are doubts that the consignments are not bonafide diplomatic goods.
Sources said that the new home-grown computerised system ie WEBOC has been rolled out across the country replacing PACCs. The PACCs was previously run by a private company and now the WEBOC has taken over the PACCs at MCCs of Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) and whole of the Port Qasim Collectorate. Previously, PACCs was only dealing with clearance of containerised cargo at Port Qasim and now WEBOC has been implemented to handle full container load (FCL) as well loose container load (LCL).
Syed Tanvir Ahmed Project Director WEBOC, who is also holding charge of Risk Management Unit has developed the Risk Management System of WEBOC for smooth rolling out the new clearance system across the country. Previously, the risk management system was sending more containers for examination. Within one month period, the system has been fine-tuned and re-adjusted and consequently the number of examination has been drastically reduced. The WEBOC would gradually replace the ''One Customs'' clearance system at Appraisement Collectorate, Export Collectorate and Dry Ports.
Under new developments in the WEBOC, few more modules would be included in the system. Under the first phase, Afghan Transit Module, Transshipment Module, Warehousing Module and Sealing De-Sealing Module would be incorporated in the indigenously developed customs clearance system. A number of further improvements have been made and suggested in the advance version of WEBOC, sources added.
Meanwhile, Project Director WEBOC Syed Tanvir Ahmed in a letter to the Collectors of Customs said, "it is to inform that, the rollout of WeBOC in place of PaCCS (micro-clear of Agility) on all the customs stations has been implemented with effect from January 7, 2012. In this regard the micro clear software under PACCS system provided for User IDs of Form "S" data (SRO 565(I) dated 5/6/2006) only wherein the concerned RTOs used to upload/update or amend data in the System.