KARACHI: On the directions of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Customs Zahid Khokhar, the Customs authorities have increased the monitoring of green channel facility and prohibited the goods declarations filed by self IDs, sources said.
The authorities declared the involvement of clearing agents compulsory in the process of clearance of the consignments for importers rather than filing the goods declaration through self IDs.
Sources told Customs Today that Khokhar’s directions are being implemented by the relevant collectors in all the three Collectorates of appraisement — Port-Qasim, Appraisement East and Appraisement West during the process of clearance. The applicants of self ID are directed by the staff that they should file their goods declaration through clearing agents.
According to the source, these directions are being come into force after a report about Green Channel has been presented to member customs and chairman FBR in which investigators informed the high officials that some importers have been allotted green channel facilities despite having suspicious track record and status and they have utilizing this facility for tax evasion thorough mis-declaration.
In the report Chairman FBR Tariq Mehmood Pasha and Member Customs Zahid Khokhar have been informed that M/s Digicom smuggled Q-Mobiles worth Rs1.5 billion through mis-declaration using Green Channel on self ID and now the importer and the main accused Zeeshan Akhtar who is also the owner of the company has left the country to avoid his arrest. After reviewing the reports the relevant offices issued new directions to all Collectorates.
Custom officials termed that if the GD was filed by the clearing agents to clear the consignments of M/s Q-Mobiles it would have been easier to trace the whole network and prosecute them for recovery.
A custom officer to on the condition of anonymity told that after they received new directions they are monitoring the green channel of daily basis and scrutinizing the GDs which are filed by self IDs.
