KARACHI: Web-based One Customs (WeBOC) online clearance system for clearance of transit trade shall include International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) military cargos as well as Pak-Afghan transit trade to prevent pilferage of goods inside Pakistan, official sources said.
Notice issued by the Directorate General of Transit Trade reads that the processing and clearance of all types of transit trade cargos, including commercial and non-commercial, to and from Afghanistan, will be carried out under WeBOC.
The non-commercial cargos are those that are imported by allied forces and other NGOs in Afghanistan. The commercial cargos are imports for Afghanistan.
The directorate also said that to implement the system all the stakeholders had been issued user ID for filing the goods declaration.
Earlier the Federal Tax Ombudsman, in a report presented before the Supreme Court in ISAF missing containers case, estimated a loss of Rs 19 billion in 7,922 missing containers.
The FTO also criticized the manual system, saying the record keeping of paper documents is cumbersome. “Each paper document in the Customs has around 34 signatures and 62 verifications.
No wonder that fixing responsibility is so hard; officials facing inquiries find it convenient to deny their own signatures,” the report showed.
In the latest notification, the directorate said that the shipping lines will mention the goods through ports i.e. Torkham and Chaman in the bill of lading and the same will be manifested in the carriers declaration uploaded electronically in the Customs computerised system.
The notice, however, said that those goods declarations that had been filed in the One-Customs manual system but were not cleared will be allowed to get clearance at the manual system despite the launch of WeBOC system.
