The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has directed the Customs department to clear consignments within 24 hours in addition to curtailing the dwell timing of the consignments. Collector Customs Lahore, Syed Zaheeruddin disclosed this while talking with a delegation of local trade and businessmen, here on Wednesday.
He said the Collectorate of Customs Lahore had also planned a series of meetings with the key trade and industry figures as part of its strategy evolved to ensure greater interaction with the taxpayers. This would help and facilitate the officials to be acquainted with the problems and grievances of trade and business community and they would be able to have suggestions from stakeholders for improving the working atmosphere and the existing system.
The meeting discussed in length the problems confronted to the trade and business community particularly the need for improving the transportation facility of cargo in Customs Bonded Carrier from Karachi to Lahore.
The Collector assured the delegation members that the CBR was already working on the issue under the National Trade Corridor Improvement Programme (NTCIP) introduced by the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, recently.
He said meetings were going on with the Pakistan Railways to increase the number of cargo trains from Karachi to Lahore. He urged the business and trade community to opt for e-filling system to minimise direct contact with the officials at the dry ports. He also informed the delegation members that the department was going to introduce automatic clearance to further facilitate the importers. He said a programme named 'One Customs' had also been introduced to make uniformity of valuation across the country. The delegation members included SZ Rehman of Sohrab Cycle, Khalid Hassan of M/s Nestle Pakistan, Khalid Mustafa of Millat Tractors, Faisal Zaman of M/s Highnoon Laboratories, Haroon Niazi of M/s Dynasel (pvt) Ltd, and Allauddin Frasta of Rupali Group.