Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Customs Mukarram Jah Ansari said exports are the top priority of the government. Speaking to its members during his visit to APTMA House, he assured APTMA of resolving all customs-related issues on a priority basis Necessary changes would be incorporated in the relevant rules, regulations and laws whenever required, he said. According to the member customs, Pakistan Single Window is being improved and will soon include 74 departments. He said that in order to support the sector, the Port Community System and trade information site will also be in place, and that the essential awareness workshops for trade and industry information will be scheduled soon.

Before mid-October, he promised to have an indirect export module for the Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) developed, and he named Collector Faisalabad as the focal person for dealing with concerns in the textile sector, such as waste and audit problems. He requested that Aptma designate a focus point for concerns on the module pertaining to indirect exporters. In his welcome address, APTMA North Zone chairman Hamid Zaman highlighted several impediments to the implementation of the EFS introduced in July 2021. He said the Indirect Export Module has yet not been deployed and manual filing of indirect export GDs (goods declaration) is creating banking and refund difficulties. He also pointed out that the department is not allowing transfer of plant and machinery in case of the merger of the production units.

He argued that the idea of rotating values, in which the quantity of exported commodities may be automatically restored in authorised value, should be established. Additionally, the plan should provide automatic conversion from any existing scheme to EFS without audit. The system, he claimed, ought to display available face value. The lack of an established module for zero-rated local input procurement necessitates rapid action. He said that the suspension of all production and exports is happening as a result of the renewal of manufacturing bond licences being delayed due to a lack of a PCA audit.

According to him, customs duty may be charged at the net transactional value, excluding freight, port handling charges etc., as the WTO agreement authorizes member states to include or exclude such charges. He said a lack of coordination between shipping line and customs is causing delays. There is a need to introduce digital audit and do away with routine audit of calling voluminous record of all imports, purchases, manufacturing/supplies. He also suggested the implementation of the open door policy at least for two hours a day.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk