Bajwa, Wathra hope that both institutions would continue their mutual collaboration
LAHORE: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Bajwa and Governor State Bank of Pakistan Ashraf Mahmood Wathra on Monday signed an accord for automation of Form-E and have shown optimism that automation of Form E will have manifold benefits to all stakeholders and the country would reap advantages of increased inflow of foreign exchange.
‘The automation will reduce cost of doing business for exporters and will bring efficiency in the system,’ the Governor said. The Chairman FBR remarked that automation of Form E will also facilitate in efficient processing of duty drawback claims of the exporters as well as preventing any fake/bogus documentation.
Governor SBP and the Chairman FBR were speaking at the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) at SBP Headquarters today on October 26, 2015.
In order to streamline issuance of Form-E, State Bank of Pakistan and the Pakistan Customs had initiated a project for the automation of the process of issuing Form-E. In this regard, an Electronic Form-E (EFE) module has been developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders and incorporated in the Pakistan Customs’ electronic system called Web based One Customs (WeBOC).
At present, most of the exports are processed through WeBOC but a small percentage of the export cargo are being exported through the ‘One Customs’ system. Efforts are underway to expand scope of the EFE module to export of such goods as well. Currently, Form-E is issued manually by Authorized Dealers (Banks). The system will begin receiving applications for EFE with effect from November 2, 2015, for exports taking place from November 11, 2015 onwards. The request for EFE will be submitted electronically by the exporter in WeBOC and Authorized Dealer will approve or reject EFE electronically in WeBOC. Accordingly, paragraph 36 has been added in Chapter XII of FE Manual 2002, which provides regulations for issuance of EFE. However, for exports taking place through One Customs, manual Form-E will be issued by authorized dealers as per existing instructions.
The governor and the chairman FBR hoped that both institutions would continue their mutual collaboration for the benefit of public in general and business community in particular in future as well. Going forward SBP and Pakistan Customs would also work to automate Form I which is expected to reduce illegal payments besides having a salutary impact on import revenues.
