LAHORE: A “Connectivity Bus” has been developed and would be launched soon to exchange trade data between Pakistan and China. This system would play a vital role in controlling the issue of under invoicing.
Chief Collector Customs Karachi Zahid Khokhar told this while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The LCCI president, former president, former senior vice president, former vice presidents and executive committee members also spoke on the occasion.
Chief Collector said that “Connectivity Bus” is a modern technology system and it would drastically reduce under invoicing in trade with China. He said that another system is also being developed for checking of trading goods. It would reduce human involvement and ensure transparency.
He further said that WeBOC is an international level program and far better than the contrary software. He said this system was developed by the local experts and entire world is acknowledging its efficiency.
Regarding Electronic I-Form, he said that data has been compiled and brought into the system. The work is well on the way to make this system friendly. He said that smuggling has been reduced due to efficient work of the law enforcement agencies. Stringent measures have also been taken to control illegal trade from Pak-Afghan border.
The LCCI President Abdul Basit said that the current economic status of Pakistan is satisfactory and business community is striving hard to improve it. He said that the customs department and the business community should cooperate with each other for carrying out healthy business activities.
“The LCCI members should be educated regarding laws, procedures and SOPs followed by Customs through seminars, workshops and hands on trainings.
Importers are facing various problems while transporting imported goods from the ports to their warehouses as they are frequently stopped by Custom personnel on various check points during transit. We believe that consignments once cleared by Customs Authorities should not be checked time and again while moving up country”. He emphasized that unnecessary delays in clearance of goods should be minimized to minimize financial losses.
He said that FBR should amend WeBOC, as only a few options are available in the system if any modifications are required to be made.
He strongly proposed an online system between borders which should be an essential pre-requisite for the importing and exporting parties consequently giving them pre-arrival information about the trade items. This will pave way to stop smuggling and save time as well as help Frontier Core to identify smuggled goods.
Former LCCI office-bearers Sha6hid Hassan Sheikh, Malik Tahir Javed, Aftab Ahmed Vohra and Shafqat Saeed Piracha said that number and ratio of duties and taxes should be reduced to promote the tax culture. They said that Afghan Transit Trade is one of the major sources of smuggling therefore it should be reviewed. They said that there should be a time limit for audit as audit for last 18-20 years is a sheer injustice. They suggested that those items which falls under higher duty should be given green channel facility and should be given exemption from examination.
