Pakistani customs authorities will conduct physical verification of the US cargo destined for Afghanistan in cases where discrepancy is found between scanned images of consignments and declaration of goods in the good declaration (GD) filed by the representatives of US forces in Pakistan. In this connection, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a Customs General Order 10 of 2012 here on Saturday.
According to the FBR, the Appraising officer (AO) or other appropriate officer of Customs in the relevant assessing group of the Collectorate at the port of entry shall process the GD on the basis of the specifications in the documents. Customs officials would satisfy himself that the declaration and Customs documents are complete and correct, the signatures match with the specimen signatures provided by US Office of Defence Representative, Pakistan (ODRP), the goods declared for transit are in conformity with the import documents and scanned images, and that the goods allowed for transit are in accordance with the agreed terms of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Pakistan and the US.
The FBR said that in case of any discrepancy between scanned images and declaration of goods in the GD, the container shall be subjected to physical examination for the sake of verification. The examining or appraising staff can otherwise carry out examination of any consignment whenever it is called for. The Appraising officer or the examining officer shall endorse the legible and indelible examination report on the reverse of original, duplicate, quadruplicate and quintuplicate copies of the GD.
For the goods to be allowed entry under this CGO at Torkham and Chaman, scanning shall be substituted with examination of the goods, based on risk management, till the time requisite infrastructure, acceptable to the concerned Customs authorities, becomes available there.
Thereafter, the GD shall be countersigned by the Principal Appraiser or Superintendent (Examination) and shall be presented to the AO or the appropriate officer for further processing, FBR maintained. Prohibited goods, if found present in the cargo, shall be detained and penal action shall be taken against the concerned persons under the provisions of Customs Act, 1969.
In case the examination report confirms the bona fides of the cargo, the AO or appropriate officer and the Principal Appraiser or Superintendent, as the case may be, shall process the GD and allow "out-of-charge" the GD after satisfying themselves that the description, quantity or weight of the goods are in order.
The Principal Appraiser or Superintendent shall place the original copy of scanning image in the Group file for record. The duplicate copy of the scanning image shall be forwarded to the Pakistan Customs Container Security System (PCCSS) for onward transmission to the exit Collectorate along with Form-A to be issued in accordance with CGO 04 of 2007 dated 31.03.2007.
The original copy of the GD shall be retained by the Customs at the port of entry for their record. The duplicate and quadruplicate copies shall be sent to the Customs-station of exit. The triplicate copy shall be handed over to the authorised agent or the focal person of the ODRP and the quintuplicate copy shall accompany the vehicle throughout its transit journey. The duplicate copy shall be used for endorsement of "cross border" or "mate receipt" (MR) number, as the case may be, at the port of exit and for reconciliation, the FBR added.