The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has expressed concern over the limited functioning of the Directorate General of Post Clearance Audit (PCA), which is a key department to check tax frauds during clearance of imported consignments.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the DG intelligence has proposed the FBR to expand the scope of the Directorate General of Post Clearance Audit. The directorate of intelligence FBR said that the PCA has unfortunately been neglected despite strong recommendations by the World Customs Organisation (WCO). With growing volumes of International trade, smooth and secure supply chain can only be ensured through an intelligence driven RMS backed by an effective pots clearance audit system. It is, therefore, proposed that new Directorates of PCA should be immediately established for Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa (KPK), Balochistan and Northern Areas. Besides this, the existing Directorates and the Directorate General of PCA should be strengthened in terms of human and physical resources.
The Directorate General of Post-Clearance Audit of the FBR is a key department to check import frauds with the assignment of checking tax frauds, mis-declarations and under-valuations and wrong applications of Pakistan Customs Tariff (PCT). Sources said that the PCA is one of the key reform initiatives under the Tax Administration Reform Project (TARP) to check imported consignments for checking tax frauds.
It is important to mention that the directorate has already decided to maintain data of contravention reports framed against importers to conduct audit of high-risk persons based on the traders' profiles. The directorate has developed a system to maintain data of contravention reports framed against the importers and exporters. The National Tax Numbers (NTNs) of the importers/exporters would also be fed into the data to identify traders against whom maximum number of contravention reports has been finalised. In this way, the department would be in a position to select high-risk cases for audit on the basis of contravention reports and other related data. The new system would enable the DG PCA to conduct audit of the importers/exporters in a more objective manner.