Electronic data interchange system is in the offing to speed up consignments’ clearance
LAHORE: Trade is a dynamic thing which passes through a number of changes with the passage of time bringing along with it tribulations and the Customs Liaison Border Committee (CLBC) after every two and a half month is playing a very vital role in resolving the bilateral trade issues, improving conditions of trade facilitation in the result of it.
This was the crux of the discussion of the 20th CLBC meeting between Pakistan and India held here at the Customs House.
Chief collector of Customs Rozi Khan Burki, Collector of Customs Lahore Preventive Mukarram Jah Ansari, additional collector Jamil Nasir, deputy collector of Customs Iram Sohail and DC Nazima Salim from Pakistan Customs while commissioner Captian Sanjay Gahlot, additional commissioner Nitin Saini, deputy commissioner Paramavtar Singh Gill, assistant commissioner Jasmeet Singh and assistant director Jasveer Khichar attended the CLBC meeting from Indian side of the Customs.
“As soon as summer season begins the trade volume between the two neighboring countries gains momentum and customs authorities of both side come across a number of minor issues that cause major delays in clearance of consignments,” Collector of Customs Preventive Mukarram Jah Ansari told Customs Today.
The CLBC meeting provides the customs authorities of the both sides an opportunity to streamline things ahead of the high season besides train, bus and on-foot traffic issues are also discussed to speed up customs clearance, he added.
A number of issues including narcotics smuggling trough train have been resolved in the results of joint efforts and information sharing between the two sides of the customs authorities, Jah informed.
In answer to a question, Mukarram Jah Ansari said that earlier both sides were used to exchange documents manually and “now we are heading towards adopting electronic data interchange system and in this context useful decision will be taken.
Because of the rising trade volume present port infrastructure on both sides of the boarder is insufficient which needs to be improved and CLBC is agreed to convey the deliberations in this context to their respective governments, Jah stated.
“We have discussed a number of issues related two sided trade, however, the issues of timings, safety, security and fast clearance of consignments and Samjota train passengers’ clearance were the major bottlenecks which we discussed in details,” Commissioner of Customs India Sanjay Gahlot told Customs Today after attending the meeting.
In answer to a question about IT based data exchange system, Gahlot said IT based data exchange system to further facilitate the bilateral trade also came under discussion and he hoped that positive development would take place in this regard.
CLBC has become one significant platform which is resolving trade related issues between Pakistan and India successfully. The committee meeting is automatically scheduled between the customs authorities after every two and half month. Till now 20 CLBC meetings have been conducted fruitfully.
