LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has made major changes in the WeBOC customs clearance system including “security revalidation” on the recommendations of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO).
According to the details released by the FTO office, the recommendations made by FTO regarding systematic improvements in WEBOC Modules have been developed and deployed by FBR.
In pursuance of FTO’s recommendation to FBR to ensure systemic improvements in WeBOC so as to enable the Assessing Collectorates of Customs to monitor the progress of provisional assessments on regular basis, additional features for systematic Automation in the WEBOC modules have been deployed by FBR.
The salient features of new deployments are: (1) The validation/process flow of “security Revalidation” has been revised. (2) A new tab “GDs where security is expired” in AC/DC Assessment under disputed GDs menu has been added. This will only display GDs where security instrument under dispute are pending. No GDs where securities are released/encased shall appear in this folder. (3) AC/DC Assessment has option to update the following dates in the GD through edit button a) Expiry date; b) Settlement date. (4) The option of editing activity is recorded in the GD log. An auto message is sent to the trader.
GDs will be marked to the collector for extension under new menu “LIST of GDs for Revalidation of security”. After the approval, GD is marked to the security instrument under current menu “Update Security Instrument after approval of security Revalidation Request”. (5) In the AC/DC Assessment module a new menu for “Disputed GDs Alert” have been created. Through this functionality the AC/DC Assessment can review the disputed GDs. (6) Aging of disputed GDs. (7) A check box to search disputed GDs for particular period date range.
Brief facts of the case were that the complainant imported eight consignments of Tyres and Tubes and filed Goods Declarations during the period December 2020 to February 2021 which were provisionally assessed under section 81 (1) of the Act as the complainant’s request for revision of valuation ruling was pending with Director General (Valuation) Custom House, Karachi.
As per details, the provisional assessment was supposed to be finalized within the time frame prescribed (six months) which had not been done despite lapse of more than two years in similar cases.
The FTO sought Secretary Revenue Division for comments, the Collector of Customs, MCC Karachi informed that the request for revision of valuation ruling was pending with the Director General (Valuation), as no response was received. It was also further informed that once the goods are provisionally assessed by the appropriate officer, the goods declaration on WEBOC window is transferred to Directorate of Valuation for necessary action without leaving any trace or link for the assessing officer to monitor progress.
FTO observed that 280 cases of provisional assessment including those under the instant complaint remained unattended and were returned back to Collectorate without any input/advice despite the fact that a substantial amount of revenue was involved in these cases.
FTO’s order had also recommended that the Director Reforms & Automation should address this shortcoming in the WeBOC system and fix the same on priority.
