Chairman Central Board of Revenue, Abdullah Yousuf during his visit to the Peshawar Dry Port and transit station assured the Frontier Customs Agents Group (FCAG) and Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Group (PATTG) of solving their problems.
He was accompanied by collector Sher Nawaz Khan and in-charge deputy collector Ziaullah Shams and other officials. FCAG chairman Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, senior vice president Urooj Ahmad Ansari, member executive body Khalid Shehzad, PATTG president Gul Afzal Shinwari and Haji Khairullah Shinwari apprised the CBR chairman about the lack of facilities at the port.
Sarhadi appreciated the reforms carried out in the CBR like the formation of Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee, setting up of CARE system and Medium Taxpayer Unit.
He demanded installation of scanning machines at the port, setting up one-window operation, shifting of the port from cantonment to city railway stations as, according to him, there was lack of space, less intervention of customs intelligence at the dry port and lastly, transit customs station.
The FCAG chairman called for making Peshawar Dry Port a modern one like other ports in the country.
Urooj Ansari told the CBR chairman that there was need of proper valuation of imported goods by the customs department. This practice, he said, would help prevent smuggling.
Abdullah Yousuf issued on the spot orders for the solution of the problems and directed the customs officials to check the imported goods only once. The CBR chief said that he would have consultations on the issue of joint-checking by all the concerned agencies of exported goods at Torkham Border and would take decision on it afterwards.