The decision was taken in the quarterly conference of collectors of customs chaired by CBR Chairman Abdullah Yusuf on Monday.
The conference decided that in case of stolen cars, unless the concerned county has not informed about the theft, the customs department should not doubt and raise objection to that effect unless there are solid reasons.
CBR Chairman directed that the department must contact Interpol etc and establish close liaison with international agencies to overcome this issue. But, the customs should not delay clearance of imported vehicles or extort money in the garb of this issue.
About Afghan Transit Trade, Yusuf observed that the system was still not working ideally. He asked the collectors to address all genuine complaints in this regard. He directed Director General Customs Intelligence, Major General (Retd) Usman Shah to study the issue thoroughly and submit a comprehensive report so that necessary steps could be taken to make the system transparent.
The CBR has offered all confiscated vehicles to the Chief Relief Commissioner for utilisation in the relief efforts being conducted in the quake-hit areas.
The Chairman hoped that these vehicles, which are of different categories, make and model, would help to further accelerate the efforts of the Government to provide relief and succour to earthquake affectees. About 500 confiscated vehicles are currently lying with different collectorates.
The Chairman told the participants that CBR has made a humble contribution to alleviate the sufferings of the earthquake victims which include over 50 trucks of relief goods, distributed in the badly-hit areas of AJK & NWFP, besides sending medical teams to provide medical aid and treatment to the injured persons. He said that a cheque of Rs 5 million donation was deposited in the President's Relief Fund and an amount of Rs 5 million had been allocated for rehabilitation of the employees of CBR who have been affected by the earthquake.
The Chairman asked the collectors to collect complete information of the quake-hit employees of their respective collectorates and pass it on to Member (Admin) to enable CBR to grant appropriate compensation to them.
The Chairman also touched upon a number of issues confronting the customs department, which include replication of CARE in other collectorates across the country, under-valuation, misdeclaration, smuggling, standardisation, Afghan Transit Trade, disposal of confiscated liquor, arms and ammunition, vehicles and narcotics, installation of scanners at the ports and decentralisation of the authority.
Regarding implementation of Customs reforms, the Chairman stressed the need of imparting basic training and learning to officers and staff. He also expressed the need to remove deficiencies in the way of implementation of 'One Customs' programme. He hoped that the PACCS and networking would provide the required information.
He said that serious efforts were needed to improve the system and make the department transparent and effective. He asked the collectors to set personal example to be followed by other junior officers and staff.
The Chairman told the collectors that their job was not simply to sit in the office. He asked them to conduct detailed research and suggest ways and means to improve the system and check the leakage's.
Talking about confiscated liquor, arms and ammunition, vehicles and narcotics, Yusuf directed the collectors to dispose them of as per rules and regulations but without any further loss of time.
The Chairman said that the major problem confronting customs was under-valuation and misdeclaration. He asked the collectors to submit reports on efforts made so far in this regard. "We have to really do much more than what we have already done", the CBR chief remarked.
Referring to the working of officers of CBR and its field formations, the Chairman said that in future integrity and efficiency of officers would be given due weightage in their promotions, particularly from BS-18 to BS-19.
Earlier, Member (Customs), Shahid Rahim Sheikh, highlighted the achievements of collectorates in collection of customs duty in first quarter of current financial year and outlined the strategy to meet the annual targets.
He said that in the first quarter overall collection of customs duty was Rs 28.6 billion against the target of Rs 26.9 billion, registering an increase of 28 percent as compared to the same period of last financial year. He was confident that the annual target of collection would be achieved.
Later, the Collectors of Customs, in their separate presentations, briefed the conference about the performance of their respective collectorates.
Briefing the conference on achievements of CARE project, the Collector (Appraisement) and Model Customs Collectorate, Karachi, Azhar Majid Khalid said that CARE project since its launch on May 10, 2005, cleared cargo imported on 192 vessels which comprised 17018 consignments brought in 77663 containers.
Revenue collected on these consignments came to slightly above Rs 9 billion; customs duty Rs 4.1 billion, sales tax Rs 3.6 billion, capital value tax (CVT) Rs 1. 268 billion and federal excise Rs 0.1 billion.
He said that on account of under-invoicing, Model Customs Collectorate, working under CARE, recovered Rs 301.49 million and also instituted 53 cases of misdeclaration of description and quality involving revenue to the tune of Rs 38.5 million.
He said that all import-related functions "are now operational and exports are also now being dealt" in Model Customs Collectorate. He said that for convenience of traders two more branches of National bank of Pakistan have been made operational to collect duty and taxes nearest to their business places. He also said that some more branches of NBP would be operational very soon at Karachi to facilitate the traders whereas the staff of NBP branches at Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Islamabad and Sialkot have been trained by CARE officers and these branches will become operational very soon.
Azhar Majid said that the customs clearance time for import consignments has been reduced to less that 14 hours, as compared to non-PACCS imports, which take 168 hours, on average. Further, average dwell time has been reduced from 11 days to 5 days. He claimed that by introducing Pakistan Customs Computerised System (PACCS), Customs Department has completely overcome the menace of corruption and misuse of discretion in Model Customs collectorate.
To remove a cumbersome procedure for clearance of cars which was causing delays and corruption, the government has already made certain significant changes in the import policy and now customs have to clear the cars without raising irrelevant and flimsy objections.
Collector appraisement stated that some reforms measures are being taken in the semi-automated environment of Appraisement Collectorate. He apprised the meeting that Appraisement collectorate would start entertaining carrier declarations (IGM) 24 hours prior to arrived of vessel from current month.
He said that Appraisement collectorate has also simplified the procedure for transhipment and submitting to the Board for approval and implementation. He informed that by the end of November 2005 Appraisement collectorate would start entertaining IGM and Good Declaration electronically.
He said that Appraisement Collectorate had taken certain administrative measures for expeditions clearance and, by December, 2005, it would be able to clear imported cargo within 48 hours as compared to present clearance time of five/six days.