The Customs Directorate Training and Research (DOTR) is to train customs agents for the Customs Administration Reforms project (Care) due to be introduced shortly to minimise bottlenecks for the importers.
The Care will ensure clearance of the goods discharged from the vessel the same day.
The criteria for the training was agreed between TR Director Wahid Khurshid and Karachi Customs Agents Group (KCAG) President Farukh Saleem at a meeting.
The Customs agents, who have paid the most sales tax in 2003-04, may be given the option to be trained for the Care first.
Under the procedure, the TR Director would obtain the list of all customs agents, registered with the Sales Tax Collectorate after sorting out the amount of the sales tax paid for the FY 2003-04 in descending order and pass it on to the KCAG.
The KCAG would invite the first 300 agents of the list for the induction quiz on the date fixed by the DOTR.
It would prepare the list of candidates and send it to the DOTR to make preparation for the test.
To send names of their employees, whom they want to be trained, the Customs agents would have to register themselves with the DOTR through the KCAG for the certificate training programme.
The induction quiz to select the customs agents, they would be taught English language, imparted training in customs laws and procedure, hardware, software, internet, Microsoft Office, including MS Word and MS Excel.