The NBP customs house branch is expected to be reopened on Tuesday (today) as the management has urgently transferred the staff working at Clifton and Tauheed Commercial branches to customs house branch for next 15 days till the quarantine period.
NBP spokesman confirmed that one of the staff of our Custom House branch tested Covid-19 positive, on 23-04-2020, he was sent in isolation and all staff as per government SOP were advised to get their tests done. If God forbid more staff to be declared positive we shall send them in quarantine. In the meanwhile Branch was sealed and got disinfected.
The Branch shall resume its operations from tomorrow with new staff and PPEs after the clearance from government as per SOP. Since there is no cure available to Cvoid-19 except social distancing, therefore we expect from our customer to maintain social distancing.
Talking to Business Recorder, Arshad Jamal, Chairman, All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) said that APCAA in its letters sent to all concerned authorities before lockdowns, advised the FBR to issue directions to NBP Custom House branch to arrange pay orders collection boxes where the importers and clearing agents could drop their pay orders and bank staff could ensure collection of duty and taxes without human interaction and delays.
"But no heed was paid on APCAA's plea; now not only NBP staff but the customs officials, clearing agents, importers and other stakeholders, who interacted with the branch during last 15 days are probably at the risk," Arshad said.
"We keep requesting FBR for years to introduce online system to avert human interaction, which we believe as root cause of malpractices in customs, but now the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic has necessitated online system for all business activities from tax payments to delivery orders and container gate passes to maintain social distancing," he added. He said that APCAA had rendered maximum facilitation to its members after the closure of bank branch in order to make their payments of duties & taxes and requested its members to pay their duties and taxes online throughout this quarantine period and prevent from this deadly pandemic.