ISLAMABAD: Chief International Customs Federal Board of Revenue Dr. Zubair has said we are ready to face the risks and challenges. Pakistan Customs is breaking all previous records of revenue collections.
He stated this while giving an exclusive interview to Customs Today.
He explained about the World Customs Organization Theme Data Analysis and said there are two main purposes of the World Customs Organization; one is to facilitate trade and the second is to never lose regulatory controls. ‘When we talk about trade facilitation, it is important to make our enforcement system better’, he remarked. He said when we provide trade facilitation then risks and challenges increase but we have a risk management system to counter it. We also have a post clearance audit system for which we need to get expertise in data analysis, he added.
The World Customs Organization’s this year’s theme is data analysis which means we will have to facilitate the legitimate trade and counter the illegitimate trade and smuggling through data analysis as all customs operations are incomplete without data analysis, he opined. Pakistan Customs has a full capacity to meet all the challenges which can be observed by last year’s performance. We acquitted ourselves well not only on the front of revenue collection but also on enforcement side, he maintained. The international organizations like World Customs Organization, United Nations office of Drugs and Crimes, World Trade Organization and other international community have not only lauded our performance but also done the efforts of the Pakistan Customs, he observed.
One of the main problems we have been facing for last many years is lack of human resource as different posts from grade one to 16 are lying vacant. Now the ban on appointments has been lifted which will improve the performance of the department with the appointments of young people, he added. He said China Pakistan Economic Corridor is very important project for Pakistan Customs for which we are launching various projects.
We have proposed china that sost dry port needs to be upgrade, possibly with Chinese investment, to make it capable of basic facilities like office and storage capacity. He disclosed that we are working on different MoUs and agreements which we will sign with International community and organizations because we want to become part of more international conventions which will be helpful for improving performance of our customs department. We are also improving our IT system to tackle the future needs, he further said. It is our responsibility to provide security to international trade and also secure country’s interests.
He said Pakistan and Afghanistan are updating their systems that will be introduced on Torkham border soon. The agreement with China and UAE will be linked in current years, and accords with Iran and other countries will also be signed for data interchange system. He said data interchange systems will help find out irregularities in the transit trade.
