The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has restored the clearance of Afghan Transit (AT) cargos and extended the deadline for payment of pending insurance guarantee amounting to Rs 27.217 billion on AT cargos till September 25, 2012, Business Recorder learnt on Thursday.
Sources said that the board had earlier suspended the clearance of hundreds of AT cargos including Nato/ISAF containers from September 10, 2012 to recover the said pending insurance guarantees. They said that the customs department had declared some 152 clearing agents as defaulters because some 8010 AT-GDs were processed without the said insurance guarantees. Therefore, the directives were sent to the AT group to stop accepting their Afghan Transit Goods Declarations (AT-GDs) from September 11, 2012.
Sources said that the FBR, which had stopped accepting the AT-GDs of defaulting clearing agents, rolled back its decision and extended the deadline till September 25, 2012 after strong resentment from the clearing agents. Replying to a question, sources said that the clearance of over 15000 transit cargos including a huge number of Nato/ISAF containers would fall into abeyance if the board implemented its decision by September 25, 2012.
They said that although the fears of the stakeholders had been pacified after the assurance given by the board not to take any legal action till September 25, 2012, the notification in this regard had, so far, not been issued from Islamabad.
However, there are some reports that customs officials posted in Karachi are exploiting the situation and asking for more bribes from the stakeholders to get the help of the customs department. "Some 200 clearing agents are presently offering their services to the commercial and non-commercial importers of AT cargos. Therefore, the decision to stop the clearance of AT cargos, if implemented, will cause a halt of the entire transit trade, including the Nato/ISAF consignments," sources said.
They said that around 12000 containers that were stuck after a ban imposed by the Pakistani government on the Nato supply convoys in reaction to the Salala incident in November, were still not cleared and after the restoration of Nato supply from July, 3, 2012, only fresh AT cargos were being transited. Moreover, sources said that the ports were already short of space as importers were reluctant to clear these 12000 containers because of high demurrages and detentions. If the licenses of the clearing agents were blocked, it would create serious congestion issues at ports.
Presently, around 5000 fresh AT containers are parked at different ports of the country and the backlog of AT cargos, which stood at around 12000 containers, would soar further after the suspension of AT cargo clearance by September 25, 2012. Meanwhile, the clearing agents termed the requirement of duplicate GD along with original Afghan custom duty copies signed, stamped, with name and designation of Afghan customs official from importer/clearing agents as unreasonable, saying that the Pakistan customs instead of asking the said documents from the Afghan customs is putting pressure on the clearing agents to produce the same.
However, the FBR is of the view that they have the right to take legal action against them as Afghan importers, who are required to submit duplicate copy of AT-GDs along with the Afghan customs GDs, bearing cross reference of Pakistan's GD within 60 days of the date when the AT cargos were discharged from the port under rule 621 of APTTA Rules 2011, have failed to comply with the said restriction.
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