Iranian port Bandar Abbas is now considered a better option for this purpose and it is being extensively used to ensure safe delivery of goods and services, sources in Customs department said on Thursday. Since the suspension of all Afghan transit cargos in retaliation against Nato air strike on Salala border post in November 2011, inconsistent government policies led to complex FBR procedures.
Resultantly, the volume of transit cargoes including Afghan Transit, Nato/Isaf and US military cargoes has woefully shrunk to just 5 percent and the rest of the transit traffic shifted to Bandar Abbas, sources said. They said the Afghan importers, after the implementation of Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) 2011, are required to submit duplicate copies of Afghan Transit Goods Declarations (GDs) along with Afghan customs GDs bearing cross reference, of Pakistan's GDs within 60 days of the date when AT cargos are discharged from the port to get insurance guarantees back from customs authority.
However, it was observed that the requisite duplicate copies of the listed AT-GDs, along with original Afghan customs GDs, complete in all respects, have not been received by customs authority, despite lapse of the aforesaid statutory time limit, they said. The sources further said that if the said requirements are not fulfilled or the amounts of duty/taxes involved in the pending insurance guarantees are not paid, further clearances of the defaulting Afghan importers would be blocked.
Moreover, the sources said, the customs department has made the submission of original Afghan customs GDs mandatory for the release of insurance guarantees paid at the time of AT cargoes' clearance. But the Afghan importers are reluctant to provide Afghan customs GDs because of existence of under-invoicing culture.
Some unscrupulous elements in customs department have, therefore, exploited the said mandatory requirement. They have restricted 10 insurance companies from offering transit insurance facility for "overstepping" insurance limits and allowed a single "blue-eyed" insurance company to create its monopoly, the sources said.