AIRLINK 191.54 Decreased By ▼ -21.28 (-10%)
BOP 10.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.2%)
CNERGY 6.69 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-4.43%)
FCCL 33.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-1.34%)
FFL 16.60 Decreased By ▼ -1.04 (-5.9%)
FLYNG 22.45 Increased By ▲ 0.63 (2.89%)
HUBC 126.60 Decreased By ▼ -2.51 (-1.94%)
HUMNL 13.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.22%)
KEL 4.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.44%)
KOSM 6.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.58 (-8.37%)
MLCF 42.10 Decreased By ▼ -1.53 (-3.51%)
OGDC 213.01 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.03%)
PACE 7.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-2.35%)
PAEL 40.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.87 (-2.11%)
PIAHCLA 16.85 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.12%)
PIBTL 8.25 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-4.4%)
POWER 8.85 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.45%)
PPL 182.89 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.08%)
PRL 38.10 Decreased By ▼ -1.53 (-3.86%)
PTC 23.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.83 (-3.36%)
SEARL 93.50 Decreased By ▼ -4.51 (-4.6%)
SILK 1.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.99%)
SSGC 39.85 Decreased By ▼ -1.88 (-4.51%)
SYM 18.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-2.23%)
TELE 8.66 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-3.78%)
TPLP 12.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.35 (-2.82%)
TRG 64.50 Decreased By ▼ -1.18 (-1.8%)
WAVESAPP 10.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.48 (-4.37%)
WTL 1.78 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.56%)
YOUW 3.96 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.74%)
BR100 11,697 Decreased By -168.8 (-1.42%)
BR30 35,252 Decreased By -445.3 (-1.25%)
KSE100 112,638 Decreased By -1510.2 (-1.32%)
KSE30 35,458 Decreased By -494 (-1.37%)

Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Port Qasim Karachi has issued instructions to terminal operator to rectify the issues highlighted by customs clearance agents and assured them to implement new measures at port for speedy clearance of imported consignments through minimum examination time.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the Collector of Customs held a meeting with the customs agents at Karachi and assured them all possible steps will be taken in light of their suggestions given to facilitate trade and rectify the grey areas pinpointed by them.
The Collector expressed her vision regarding the implementation of the open door policy for the facilitation to trade as she is focusing on reducing of dwell time and facilitation & thereby gave strict instruction to terminal operator to rectify the issues highlighted by agents to minimise the examination time and give him deadline for 15 days to upload their infrastructure including labour, machinery and in this regard the representative of terminal operator acknowledged the verbal instructions given by the Collector and ensure for strict compliance without delay.
Details revealed that a delegation of All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) headed by Syed Shams Burney Chairman accompanied by Arshad Jamal, SVC, and office bearers met Collector Port Qasim, Surraya Butt for the implementation of reforms policies in order to ease the clearance system & reduce the cost of doing business.
The agents asked the customs launch an informative & comprehensive website showing the performance of the Collectorate like Revenue collections, Valid Valuation Rulings, 90 Days Data Internal Transfer & Postings, Public Notices, C.G.O.'S office order, Complain Box, Officials E-mails. They further stressed that the Collectorate must instruct all the designated branches of the concerned bank to collect customs duties.
They pointed out that a taxpayer has to wait for hours in the long queue just to submit a pay order whereas there are limited counters who are collecting duty & taxes in the working hours. Tax collection counters may be increased significantly to speed up the revenue collection.
Presently, the procedure for the payment of Fine / Penalty of Sec 82 Customs Act 1969 (de-blocking) is not integrated by PD account due to which undue exercise for the payment is done which causes unnecessary hardship to taxpayer and causes delays. For updating the system for the integration of the WEBOC with PD Account may be send to Project Director. The procedure of section 81 was discussed and it was proposed that a transparent system for the payment shall be made through system rather than leaving it on the mercy of an individual.
They alleged that customs examination staff is responsible for delay in examination and clearance adding that AC/DC are superseding the powers of examination officers and have restricted them to seek their approval of the examination reports. The examining officers were authorised to finalise their examination reports and there was no need of Ac/DC approval as per law. Agents showed grave concerns on the existing procedure & proposed the need for revolutionary measures to minimise the examination time.
It is proposed that the GD'S consisting of four or less items may be stacked separately and the examiners should complete their work & scanning of images immediately after inspection without resorting to AC/DC for approval. Only high risks consignments may be inspected by DC /AC on random basis to expedite examination process.
The single item GD may be examined with the help of powerful scanners installed by QICT. Since the terminals are operating 24/7, and sufficient examining staff may be given access to upload scanned pictures with the help of scanners and upload in the system so that choking of examination process is removed and the GD is assigned for assessment without holding for physical inspection. Random checking may also be adopted for maintain check & balance.
It is proposed that the containers marked for examination may be grounded within 6 hours and the concerned examiners must feed the reports in the night shift without resorting to AC/DC to avoid delays. In case of sensitive and fragile consignments, then the grounded containers may be examining in the presence of importers representatives to avoid theft and damage of sensitive & fragile material.
The agents showed grave concerns over the delay in verification of concessionary certificates and stress for the constitution of verification cell in order to facilitate the trade in transparent manner. There is no uniformity in assessment of same goods by the Appraising Staff the taxpayer is being harassed due to uncertain assessment. The data is only available to assessing officer into the system and is not shared due to which assessing officer takes full advantage of their choice unnecessary documents call message and its reputation is routine at initial stage. AC / DC needs to monitor their attitude on daily basis. To maintain the transparency the available data should be made available to the declarant at the time of filing the GD, as is available to the assessing officer while assessment. The performance of the assessing officer should be monitored and be made answerable.
There are many items which are loaded from the port of loading with weight variation. In order to file correct declaration as per Public Notice 9/2013 issued by the Chief Collector of Custom; the declarant may be allowed to get the container / consignment be weight prior filing the GD, so proper instruction may be communicated to the terminal accordingly. This will not only help the trade but Customs will also be benefited.
In many cases, contention of assessing officer are in violation of law and incorrect since the ADC law do not go into the history of case and simply rely on the report of AC / DC and send the case for Adjudication Collectorate.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015

Comments

Comments are closed.