KARACHI: The Model Customs Collectorate MCC Appraisement-West has faced yet another setback in terms of its working strength at official level with the departure of Additional Collector (ADC-I) Dr Iftikhar Ahmed for training, a few days ago.
According to details, MCC Appraisement-West had already been working with short strength at officer level, as before the departure of Additional Collector Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, the Collectorate was working with four additional collectors while the sanctioned strength of ADCs are five at the Collectorate level.
MCC Appraisement-West with the transfer of Farrukh Sajjad (ADC), last year was working with four ADCs which on one hand, multiply the work load on Customs officers while on the other hand, hinders facilitation of visitors including importers and clearing agents.
Now, the MCC Appraisement-West is working with only three additional collectors including ADC-II Syed Naeem Akhtar, ADC-III Nayyar Shafiq and ADC-IV Azhar Hussain Merchant.
It may be mentioned here that the bulk of clearance is being done by MCC Appraisement-West and recent situation is certainly a point to ponder for the FBR high officials, as the routine work of the Collectorate is being affected by the shortage of officers at ADC level in the Collectorate.
The visitors were of the view that the shortage of sanctioned officer strength at the MCC-Appraisement-West is badly affecting the routine work as the officers are not able to resolve the problems on time which is resulting in demurrage and detention charges to the importers.
They demanded of the authorities concerned of FBR to immediately appoint the competent additional collectors at the vacate positions so that the routine affairs may run in befitting manner.
MCC Appraisement-West has much bigger clearance ambit as compared to the MCC Appraisement-East and MCC-Port Muhammad Bin Qasim. However, the Collectorate is facing dire shortage of officers.
