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  • Jan 12th, 2016
  • Comments Off on Customs department fails to clear consignments on time
Customs department has appeared feckless to clear consignments on time, putting excessive financial burden in terms of demurrages and detention on the importers. Talking to Business Recorder, Arshad Jamal, Vice Chairman All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) said that all three Collectorates are presently reluctant to clear consignments on time as no importer was allowed to get consignment cleared without fixed speed money.

He said that importers are facing delays in consignment clearance and terminals had no arrangements for goods examination that caused increasing dual time. Besides that no skilled workforce is deputed at terminals for the said specialized job. In order to resolve the issues, Chairman APCAA Shams Burney has sent a letter to the member Customs and asked him to convene meeting to discuss the issues.

According to the letter, no mechanism has been evolved for proper verification of traders' supply chain process, encouraging corrupt practices with no trace of actual culprit. APCAA cited that many fake user IDs of Customs clearance were still not suspended and being misused by unscrupulous elements, providing financial shocks to the kitty.

Although the invoice, submitted or found from the container, is not accepted, the Customs department is used to penalizing the importers in case of not pasting the same on the container. The association said that self-clearance in WeBOC system, which was encouraged for promoting arranged Customs clearances, was entertaining wrongdoers with high loss to the exchequer.

It said that there is no integration between the Collectorates that caused wrong assessment and implementation of unified policy decision and added that unnecessary groups were established, which was against the automation of the system. Furthermore, it said that WeBOC had been rolled out without audit, raising questions on the role of the auditors and PRAL. The letter also urged the authorities to mount vigilance on the performance of PRAL for the implementation of WeBOC in true spirit.

APCAA in its letter stated that there are over 200 requirements from different departments and the terminals, despite having authorization to obtain the certificate at the time of delivery, had no proper mechanism to verify the veracity of the certificates.

Commenting on the issues highlighted by APCAA, Arshad said that they had tabled said issues before all three Collectorates during separate meetings but no positive response had been witnessed so far, despite serious assurance given by the Collectorates. Therefore, he urged the member Customs to look into the matter and call on the APCAA representatives for meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016


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