National single window to be set up at FBR: Afzal

SOHAIL SARFRAZ &

ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan on Wednesday said that National Single Window (NSW) will be set up at Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in one to two years. The project has been designed so that all parties involved in trade and transport may file standardized information and documents at a single entry point for all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements, the minister said while speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day National Single Window Stakeholders Conference.

The conference aimed at promoting trade, boosting competitiveness and creating opportunities was jointly organized by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and FBR.

The minister said that the NSW will help in processing all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements efficiently under one umbrella. The initiative would expedite the process of cross-border trade, enabling businesses to expand their operations and the government to reduce unnecessary documentations. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the FBR partnered to host a two-day conference on the establishment of a National Single Window (NSW) for trade.

Rana Muhammad Afzal said that the FBR has been authorized to complete the task and funds are pouring in. The Window’s lead department is the Customs and its all sort of requirements will be fulfilled, he said.

Presently, the minister said Pakistan has around 42 departments regulating imports and exports through the Customs, and the new initiative would help get rid of typical time-consuming file work, adding under the one window operation each department would upload the ‘single sourced databank’ and all the required information would be shared with all the departments concerned. “For example, customs duty, port charges and federal excise duty will be fed just by one click, and all will be cleared within minutes. Our cost of customs clearance is 200 percent higher than others, and this initiative will not only save time and money but also bring national efficiency and increase tax recovery ratio,” he said while quoting an example.

Afzal said the NSW would also help increase profitability of entrepreneurs, which would ultimately increase tax recovery ratio and expand tax-base, adding, “We are far behind the world as this initiative should have been adopted 10 years before, but it is never too late, we are stepping into it which will be a superb integrated, computerized and electronic system, providing great scope for the country’s information technology sector to further flourish.”

He said that the new system has the capacity to transform and modernize traditional way of doing business by introducing various trade-related processes and procedures in an automated, paperless environment leading to significant savings to Pakistan’s trade in terms of time and cost. This development will have a positive impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector regulatory bodies.

Around the world, bureaucratic processes that burden traders deter business and discourage exports.  About the linkage of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and NSW, the minister said that the CPEC is a physical infrastructure for real time movement of goods, and the NSW is of its facilitation “and we are switching over from paper to paperless mechanism. These are the pillars of Pakistan’s development as one (CPEC) is the hardware and the other (NSW) is of its software.” He said that the NSW is one of the most critical reform efforts initiated in the trade-related public sector. In his opening remarks, FBR Chairman Tariq Pasha talked about the importance of the initiative and its various aspects for promotion of trade. Country Director World Bank-Trade Facilitation in Pakistan Patchamuthu Illangovan said Pakistan is located where Central Asia, South Asia, Far East and Middle East come together, terming Pakistan a ‘true global trading hub.’

He urged that Pakistan would have to increase its ratio of trade to GDP by taking advantage of its strategic location and improving trade, adding “Our experience from Asia and elsewhere is that economies grow faster with better trade regimes.”

He hoped that the National Single Window should turn into a joint single window at the international level, wishing that the NSW initiative would be a moment of turning around for Pakistan’s performance in export sector.

He said the World Bank is ready to support Pakistan in increasing its exports performance and wanted to see its trade to GDP ratio at around 60 percent in near future.

While delivering remarks at the conference, Acting USAID Mission Director, Helen Pataki said, “For Pakistan, boosting exports and enhancing the competitiveness of Pakistani industries is integral to overcoming the current trade imbalance. By making trade simpler, the National Single Window will unlock Pakistan’s economy.”

Development of the National Single Window for trade in Pakistan will be phased in over a span of four years. The National Single Window is only one component of USAID’s enduring efforts to support Pakistan’s economic growth by enabling private sector investment, promoting a vibrant agricultural sector, fostering a strong business enabling environment, and expanding trade opportunities.

USAID’s Pakistan Regional Economic Integration Activity is a five-year initiative that aims to improve the development of Pakistan’s trade sector. The public-private dialogue forum supports the United States’ objectives to improve Pakistan’s trade environment by building the institutional and human capacity of both public and private stakeholders.

USAID’s Training for Pakistan Activity is a multi-year initiative aimed at providing training in the areas of education, energy, economic growth and agriculture, health, and stabilization and governance in line with the development objectives of the Government of Pakistan.

On the occasion, Secretary General Pakistan Software Association (PASHA) Shahryar said that efforts for automation with the support of multilateral during decade or so could not be succeeded due to absence of political will, asking how it would be different from them.

Senior officials and panelists responded that this time there is a political will and a clear mandate from the Prime Minister’s office as well as appetite from private sector to do so. The Project Management Unit (PMU) of the project will be set up in the FBR and strategy document has been finalized with the input from stakeholders and would be submitted to the Prime Minister by the end of this month. “We will give different options to the Prime Minister and one of them would be chosen by the steering committee for implementation, depending upon financing option. The entire trade will be depending on single widow and the country cannot afford to delay it, “they added. They said that the recommendations are going to be very clear in this regard.

The government official said that the committee will be recommended to be headed by the Prime Minister or finance minister to bring the regulatory bodies at one place.

 The conference brought together more than 100 government officials from key trade regulators to better understand the challenges involved in institutionalizing Pakistan’s National Single Window for trade.