KARACHI: The Pakistan Customs Services (PCS), a wing of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), is going to face the dearth of technical and skilled staff at Customs House, Karachi in next few years, it is learnt here.
The sources in FBR informed Customs Today that the last recruitment in the Customs Department was carried out in 1988 and after passing 26 years, no new recruitment was done in the department.
The sources further said that around 2,900 officers/officials were working in the field formation Collectorates i.e. Model Customs Collectorate-MCC of Appraisement (West), MCC-Appraisement (East), MCC-Port Muhammad Bin Qasim and MCC-Preventive right now.
According to the statistics, around 600 officers/officials are working in MCC-Appraisement (West), around 500 officers/officials are working in MCC-Appraisement (East), as many as 500 officials/officers are working in MCC-Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, while the Collectorate of MCC-Preventive is working with the estimated strength of around 1300 officers/officials.
“In the current scenario, almost all the Collectorates of Pakistan Customs-FBR, Karachi region are facing shortage of skilled staff while most of the competent officials/officers of the Services have reached their age of retirement and would be retired in next three to five years”, sources added.
Responding to a query, the sources feared if the federal government does not recruit the qualified persons in the Pakistan Customs on merit, the key department of revenue collection will face dire consequences in coming days.
They further revealed that the shortage of staffers, particularly at the lower cadre including LDCs, UDCs, appraisers and examiners is badly affecting the routine working affairs of the department.
