ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce on Monday that two entities under the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)—Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) and Pakistan Single Window (PSW)—were responsible for an $11 billion discrepancy in Pakistan’s import data reported last year.
According to a news report, officials from the Ministry of Commerce briefed the committee that inconsistencies in the import data reported by PBS, PRAL, and PSW led to the discrepancy, which they said requires formal clarification. The ministry emphasized that the issue was procedural and statistical in nature, not financial.
“This discrepancy does not affect Pakistan’s balance of payments position, as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) records actual foreign exchange transactions routed through the formal banking system,” the Ministry stated. They added that the balance of payments is based on verifiable inflows and outflows, not declaratory or customs-assessed data.
PBS officials explained that for the past two years, trade data had been collected from PRAL. However, this data did not include figures from the Export Finance Scheme (EFS), leading to the discrepancy. After switching to data from PSW, no such issues have been reported.
The Chairman of the Standing Committee observed that the problem stemmed from the data discrepancies between the two FBR entities, a point agreed upon by both the Ministry of Commerce and PBS officials.
Transaction-wise import data is recorded in the WEBOC system through electronic goods declarations submitted by importers. PRAL generates import data files based on these declarations, which are then shared with various ministries and departments.
The committee directed PBS to work with PRAL and PSW to resolve these discrepancies in future data reporting. The officials clarified that the issue arises from differences between the data maintained by the FBR entities, while the SBP relies on transaction-based information.
