MULTAN: Business Community of South Punjab is facing severe issues after the separation of Customs Collectorate Enforcement and Customs Appraisement.
Due to the separation of Customs Collectorate Appraisement from Multan trade activities in South Punjab region is being badly affected. Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry has submitted an application to Chairman Federal Board of Revenue, Member Customs and Chief Collector Customs Centre Region and demanded that business Community of South Punjab suffering due to separation of Customs Collectorate Appraisement from Multan.
It was pertinent to mention here that Customs Collectorate Multan was responsible for Appraisement before the division since 2019.President MCCI Mian Rashid Iqbal said that Federal Board of Revenue decision under new reforms to divide Multan Customs Collectorate into two parts have created serious issues for the business community of South Punjab. He said that Model Customs Collectorate at Multan was a fully functional body responsible for the supervision of Customs related to both Appraisal and Enforcement. But now Collectorate of Customs (Enforcement) exists at Multan and other Collectorate of Customs (Appraisal) Faisalabad far away from Multan. Business Community facing issues regarding Collectorate of Appraisement after the separation from Multan.
A person needs to travel almost 280 Kilometers from Multan to Faisalabad for taking any NOC for the clearance of their shipments and business community has shifted their all export import towards Karachi Port due to Office Faisalabad. Collector Appraisement is also assuming responsibilities in Faisalabad Office and it has become a tough task for our business community to register under the new export Facilitation Scheme process, apart from the customs related persons.
He further stated that meeting the current requirements of the export scheme requires frequent visits to the Faisalabad Appraisement office which wastes time and is also affecting business activities. Additionally, import of raw materials through Multan Dry Port has also been hampered. In this context, Multan Chamber of Commerce offers two suggestions, firstly to restore the Multan Model Customs Collectorate to its previous situation, consisting of both enforcement and appraisement, as it has been done for decades, and secondly FBR create a new plan of action that Collector Customs spent three days in Multan and three days in Faisalabad to facilitate South Punjab business community.
Mian Rashid Iqbal has also requested Chairman Federal Board of Revenue for immediate cooperation to resolve this issue and ease of doing business thus boosting economic activities in South Punjab. The return of customs operations to Multan will reduce travel costs and on the other hand promote economic development and create new business opportunities in southern Punjab in this regard.
