Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the recent Pral Board of Directors meeting headed by FBR chairman approved development of software, hardware and logistic support, etc, for implementation of the NSW.
The FBR has established a dedicated NSW Programme Management Office (PMO) in its Customs Wing to lead and coordinate NSW implementation. The business process re-engineering exercise of participating the government departments has been initiated which upon completion by April 2019 will enable the FBR to start developing the software.
The software will also enable the FBR to propose needed alignment in laws and processes related to imports, exports and transit trade for various departments & divisions. Pakistan will develop single window system software by April 2019 to improve management of cross-border trade in Pakistan by providing a single platform for transactions related to imports, exports and transit trade, reducing the cost of doing businesses and improving government controls.
Additionally, the FBR is obtaining technical assistance from development partners to finalise studies in line with the best global practices on port community system, integrated risk management and detailed project design.
The FBR expects to operationalise Pakistan's NSW before trade facilitation agreement (TFA) deadline of February 2022. The new system will provide the much-needed single platform for government-to-government (G2G) as well as business-to-government and business-to-business (B2B) and even consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions related to imports, exports and transit trade, reducing the cost of doing businesses and improving government controls.
Sources added that a NSW facility allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single-entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements.