KARACHI: The Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement-East has launched a drive to recover stuck-up revenue by issuing notices to importers to clear their consignments by December 25.
Informed sources within the MCC of Appraisement-East revealed while talking to Customs Today here the other day.
The drive is expected to help MCC of Appraisement-East collect an additional Rs 500 million in stuck-up revenue. The sources further informed that the Customs authorities had issued notice under Section 82 of the Customs Act, 1969 to hundreds of importers on December 10. The notice had asked the importers to clear their consignments within 15 days that is by December 25, failing which the goods would be auctioned.
The importers’ response to the campaign has been quite positive because the process of clearance of consignments has been speeded up at the Karachi port. The drive would not only help MCC of Appraisement-East collect an additional revenue of Rs 500 million in stuck-up revenue but it would also help lessen the congestion at the Karachi Port by leaving more space available for imports in the coming months.
The MCC of Appraisement-East has also taken a number of measures for the expeditious clearance of used car imports this month because importers traditionally rush to get the used car imports cleared by December 31. This is so because only up to three-year old used cars could be imported one of three schemes; namely the Personal Baggage, Transfer of Residence and Gift. The start of the new calendar year starts from January 1 turns the age of three-year old used car to a four-year used vehicle the importers rush to clear the used cars imported by them by December 31 because failure to do so turns a three year old car into a four year old car. And if this happens a used car imported under any of the three schemes mentioned above become useless because used cars over three year are not allowed to be imported. Failure to clear a used car by December 31, thus, means total loss to an importer because a four-year old used car could not be imported into the country.
The automation of the vehicle clearance process on the WeBOC Customs clearance system, which offers online real-time automated calculation of custom duty and taxes as well ensuring that all other requirements are met and that all the needed information is provided, recently would help the Collectorate help handle the used car clearance rush.
Besides the automation would not only eliminate the element of human discretion but it would also result in reducing the dwell time for the benefit of both the port operators and the importers- the former by collecting the payment promptly and to former by cutting the time of clearance, the sources added. To effectively meet the clearance challenge this month, the Collectorate has deputed additional human resources at the Karachi port to ensure that maximum number of containers are examined and cleared each day.
