Chairman, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Sohail Ahmed, will visit Faisalabad Dry Port (FDP) shortly to personally appraise the problems being confronted by the exporters and importers and find-out their instantaneous solution. The invitation for this visit was given by Malik Muhammad Anwar, Chairman, FDP.
Confirming his visit to FDP at a meeting with five-member delegation of FCCI held at Islamabad recently, Chairman FBR said that he had already directed the Member Customs, Munir Qureshi, to visit the FDP within a fortnight to assess the problems of exporters and importers before scheduled visit of the Chairman FBR. The Director General, Customs Intelligence, Lutaf Ullah Virk, was also present in the meeting.
The FCCI Vice President, Muhammad Ayub Mughal and Chairman, Faisalabad Custom Clearing Agents Association (FCCA) Tariq Ismail brought a number of problems into the notice of Chairman FBR and sought their immediate redressal.
Chairman FBR accepted in principle the following demands of the delegation and assured to issue a notification in this respect. A Industrial Imports Clearance at Dry Port will be made within 24 hours, while Commercial Imports within 48 hours.
The pay orders will be considered as cash payment for deposit of import duty and the Customs Collectorate would make "Out of Charge" orders after receiving the pay order. In case the invoice is missing from the packing list of the import container, it will be cleared on production of Letter of Credit (LoC) or contract documents and no penalty will be imposed.
Furthermore, the assessment of import goods would be made on "Declared Value" and the Advance Filing of GD or Advance Inspection would be allowed. The Licence for Manufacturing Bond should be issued within 15 days after filing of the application.
Regarding varying DO charges of the shipping lines, ranging from Rs 6,000 to Rs 36,000, the Chairman FBR deputed the Member Customs to immediately take up the matter with Ministry of Shipping & Ports and reach at a unanimous decision about the "Fixation of Uniform Charges" of the shipping lines.
The FBR Chairman also directed the DG Customs Intelligence to ensure that the Custom Intelligence staff should not detain any cargo container for checking before its inspection at Dry Port by Customs and if the checking was inevitable, it should be carried out with prior permission and consultation with the Collector or Chief Collector Customs.