The multifarious efforts of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to meet the tax revenue target without further burdening industry and businesses are only possible if the system is automated. According to Shahid Hussain Committee report, there should be a shift from the manual system of operation to a fully automated and information-based system.
The manual systems cannot cope with the current and future volume of operations. It is important to re-engineer the existing business processes before migration to automated system. The report said that Pakistan Automated Customs Compute-rised System (PaCCS) has improved Pakistan's economy tremendously, as already seen each day reduction in the business cycle saves Pakistan approximately Rs 3 billion. PaCCS has dramatically improved the speed of doing business and, for the first time, the trade cycle started improving.
PaCCS not only implemented meaningful reforms in customs, it proved that if people put their mind to it, they could achieve great things. It has decreased the dwell time for customs clearance, which has helped exporters as well as importers in a great way. PaCCS has minimised tax payers' and tax collectors' interaction, simplified complex systems and rules, reduced discretionary powers, strengthened monitoring and accountability and increased transparency.
Commenting on the proposed modifications in the PaCCS software, the report said that the product is glitch-free. If necessary, alterations should be made with a single focus on betterment of the country, the report demanded. It was of the opinion that the developers of that revolutionary software should be taken on board while finalising changes so that transparency can be ensured. The government should ensure that importers, not registered as active taxpayers, do not import anything, the report demanded.
With such a great system effective in FBR, it is unfortunate that FBR is bent on shutting it down. Recently, FBR has gone on record to state that it is shutting down the system and replacing it with Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd's (PRAL's) one-customs. PRAL, it is alleged, has been known for fraudulent activities, and the weak technology that it deploys enables hacking and stealing very easy activities by their very own clerks. Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world that have such a state of the art system and, unfortunately for Pakistan's economy FBR will make sure that the country becomes the worst off in the world, according to stakeholders.