KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to renew the maintenance and look after contract pertaining to the WeBOC (Web Based One Customs) with IBM, Customs Today has learnt.
The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting chaired by FBR Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan. The meeting discussed in details the reasons for shutdown of WeBOC in the recent past, suspending the clearance system at the Appraisement West and East.
It may be mentioned here that the state-of-the-art self-developed WeBOC (Web Based One Customs) became dysfunctional following some software problems. The Pakistan Customs, a wing of the FBR, has developed the IT-based WeBOC for paperless filing of the goods declaration and other functions. However the system was shut down due to reasons best known to the FBR authorities.
According to sources, the WeBOC support and maintenance contract with IBM had expired over a year ago and the Board would likely to approve renewal of this contract very shortly. The incident of WeBOC shutdown occurred after the hard discs were not replaced after completion of warranty life. The entire Storage Area Network (SAN) collapsed suspending all WeBOC operations.
The sources added that the contract with IBM would soon be renewed to ensure smooth functioning of the WeBOC system besides minor and major errors would also be removed in this system.
