KARACHI: Some technical glitches in the web-based Customs clearance system (WeBOC) has blocked the activities of Customs clearance of imports and exports.
Sources said WeBOC incurred the same problem on Saturday as it faced in March and there had been no clearance of import or export consignments through the system on the other day.
WeBOC Director Dr Fareed Iqbal Qureshi said the system was going through a maintenance phase due to which the clearance through it had slowed down a bit.
The Federal Board of Revenue launched Web-Based One Customs (WeBOC) system to facilitate trade. The WeBOC is an indigenously developed, web-based computerised clearance system, which was developed jointly by the Pakistan Customs and PRAL, and first implemented on trial basis at Port Muhammad Bin Qasim. Subsequently, WeBOC was further rolled out at other terminals and customs stations.
Currently, the WeBOC has more than 45,000 registered users from different businesses, government departments, including anti-narcotic force, Engineering Development Board, the State Bank of Pakistan, Ministry of Climate Change, Railways, Income Tax Department, Provincial Motor Registering Authorities, and banks. Presently, 30 percent import consignments are cleared immediately through green channel without any intervention, 49 percent on the basis of uploaded documents (yellow channel) and 21 percent (red channel – deemed high-risk goods). Importantly, the system has brought about uniformity in customs clearances across the country.
