The Karachi Customs Agents Group (KCAG) has said the computer system lacunas causing delay in clearance of the imports under the automated clearance procedure (ACP).
KCAG General Secretary Tariq Siddiqui, in a message to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Chairman, said because of the problems in the software, designed by the Pakistan Revenue Automated Limited (Pral), the importers were not getting the true benefit of the automated clearance system.
He said the goods declaration (GDs) was being wrongly marked by the software as "electronic assessment, selected for normal procedure along with the assessed amount" or "cleared under the ACP."
He said that actually the GD, filed under ACP, should bear the computer generated electronic assessed amount and cleared under the ACP so that the duty and the taxes could be paid directly in the bank and consignment could be marked for delivery unless it was not picked by the computer for random normal processing.
The KCAG General Secretary said that due to the software problem, the GDs were being presented in the respective groups for assessment, which took time, killing the spirit of the ACP.
The KCAG urged the CBR Chairman and the member, Customs, to direct the Pral to modify its software so that the trade could be facilitated as desired by the Collectorate of Appraisement.