RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Suraiya Ahmed Butt Chief Collector Appraisement has assured to resolve issues related to examination and terminals on priority basis.

This assurance was made during meeting with the representatives of All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) at her office on the other day.

The delegation comprises Arshad Jamal patron-in-chief APCAA and senior vice chairman Qamar-ul-Islam and others met the chief collector.

Arshad highlighted the issue related to delay in assessment, causing serious financial shocks to the trade and suggested the chief collector to release maximum consignments especially single commodity through yellow channel without examination against on the basis of importers’ profile where they filed goods declaration as per formal procedures.

Furthermore, he said that Collectorate should direct its assessing officers to avoid marking unnecessary objections on GDs for principal appraisers and deputy collectors and added that customs officials also remained unable conducting hearing of 2nd review due to excessive workload, causing delay in revenue collection and increasing cost of doing business for the trade. Therefore, hearing of 2nd review should only be conducted for settling adjudication matters.

He said that the performance of customs lab was not up to the mark hence samples were being sent to other labs by customs officials, resulting financial loss to the trade in case of delays in consignments clearance; urging the customs department to extend the validity period of lab reports up to two years to avoid such issues.

Moreover, he said that customs department should immediately finalize scanners’ specifications in order to start discharging single commodity consignments from terminals in no time.

Arshad said that examiners should be restricted to submit actual weight and weight of essential packing separately in their e-examination reports to eradicate all anomalies in the process and stressed upon the customs department for omitting unnecessary procedures from WeBOC system to facilitate the trade at maximum.

He also proposed the customs department to allow verification of mandatory certificates through FTA cell on or before arrival of vessel instead of forcing them for filing of GDs.

Similarly, the customs department should also simplify the process for waiver of section 82 of Customs Act 1969 and the policy related to the shifting of overstayed containers (60 days and above) to off-dock terminals should be formulated to avoid port congestion issues.

Later, the Chief Collector said that the issues related to examination and terminals would be resolved on priority basis as she would discuss these issues with examination staff. She also designated two customs officials to resolve issues being faced by the trade on daily basis. The Chief Collector also lauded the efforts of APCAA for highlighting core issues of trade.