The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has decided to link Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) and other private terminals with the Collectorate of Customs (Export), Karachi, for sharing computerised data pertaining to exports for early clearance of consignments. Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that KICT, Quaid-e-Azam International Container Terminal (QICT) and other terminals maintain computerised record of export cargo containers and other relevant data.
This system has to be linked to the database of Export Collectorate for proper utilisation of the information not available with the Customs department.
In this connection, the CBR has given deadline of December 10, 2004, to the Collector, Exports, Karachi, to submit a comprehensive report.
The CBR has directed the collector of customs (export), Karachi to examine the export related processes which at present are neither foolproof nor watertight to facilitate the exporters plugging all loopholes.
The CBR will proceed further in the light of report of the concerned collectorate to automate the system through linkage with other terminals dealing with export consignments.
The CBR said that the collectorates of customs were lagging behind in the process of computerisation, which is a matter of concern for the tax officials.
Sources said that the CBR is taking many steps for automation of the entire Customs regime under the Customs Administration Reforms Process (CARE).
The importers would get maximum benefit under the fully automated customs clearance project, replacing manual handling of clearance of imported consignments with the electronic filing of goods declaration.
CBR objective under reforms is to devise a system for the importers, which would not only resolve problems of the importers, but it would also reduce the cost of the importers. A fully automated system could avoid the involvement of human interaction where discretion could result to corruption.
Following automation, the importers and exporters will file their clearance documents over the web after assessing their duties and taxes themselves which will be processed by the computerised system based on risk management selective criteria.
As a result, computerised assessment and port operations will be carried out on 24 hours/7 days basis. There will be one-window operation and the users will be informed about the status of their documents and consignments at each stage, sources added.