KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed commercial banks to refuse export form (Form E) certification where exporters fail to provide full description of goods to be exported.
Banking sources on Thursday said that in order to ensure full disclosure of information by the exporter on Form E, the central bank decided that banks should not certify Form E, where full description of item being exported is not clearly mentioned or a generic description is given.
The SBP said that exporters are required to declare their exports to the customs / postal authorities in Form E, which must be certified by the authorized dealers (banks).
In this regard, the exporters required to write full details of goods being exported and quality as identifiable with the market report. The central bank observed that exporters resort to declaring the description of goods that are general in nature or represent the generic name of good instead of declaring full details and quality/varieties/sub categories of goods being exported.
The SBP also observed that the banks were certifying the incomplete Form E without requiring the exporter to declare full description of goods.
The central bank further said that it responsibility of a bank to compare the bills and / or documents with the export form upon receipt of export documents and satisfy themselves that they conform in all respect to the declaration made on the Form E. “However, it has been observed that ADs [banks] do not exercise care while checking the shipping documents and consistency of the description of goods as well as H S Code commodity classification mentioned on goods declaration with that of Form E,” the SBP said.
The central bank directed the banks to ensure full description and in case there is disagreement in H S Code or description of goods declared to customs and to the bank on Form E, the bank shall require the exporter to give proper justification for the variation.
