Business News

KARACHI: Karachi Customs Agents Association (KCAA) has requested the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to make necessary amendments to the Customs Act 1969 and the PSW system for accepting GDs without payment of upfront taxes, initially. The request was made during their meeting with Member Customs (Operation) Mukkaram Jah Ansari the other day. The KCAA said that presently there is no module in the WeBOC system for the upfront payment of sales tax levied under the third schedule of the Sales Act 1990. However, the assessing officer has to re-assess each GD for the collection of sales tax, which not only increases the dwell time of customs clearance but also hits the profile of traders that marked the RMS over the declarations of traders to yellow or red category. Although the FBR has issued SRO.250 (I)/2022 to amend the Custom Rules 2001 for filing of Goods Declaration under PSW without upfront payment of duty and taxes, there is no procedure for the implementation of such rules. Therefore, it is requested to make necessary amendments to the Customs Act 1969 and PSW system for accepting GDs without payment of upfront taxes, initially, KCAA said. It also proposed that all export-related offences may be adjudicated within the Export Collectorate and should be penalized under section 156(1) clause (i) or any relevant clause of section 156 of the Customs Act 1969. Furthermore, KCAA said that the requirement of the financial instrument should be eliminated in cases of all modes of payments and the GD should be filed under the IBAN of the trader which is already updated in the trader PSW profile. The same process can also be adopted in the case of Open Account transactions for speedy clearance of import cargo. It said that they were facing unnecessary delay on those consignments which were held by the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation, requesting the member operations to look into the matter and restrict the Directorate to conclude their cases within the minimum amount of time.