KARACHI: The Pakistan Customs and Afghanistan Customs have agreed to implement Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which would eliminate misuse of concessionary regime under the Free Trade Agreement and the financial leakages by under-invoicing and mis-classification.
According to sources, the Customs authorities of both Pakistan and Afghanistan are in constant contact and the final result of the talks would soon be announced. Besides, the Customs had taken the decision after the issuance of an alert by the Federal Board of Revenue earlier this year regarding mis-declaration in imports from China under 50 HS codes.
The Board had advised verification of suspected Certificates of Origin directly through the Commercial Missions of Pakistan abroad, discouraging mis-classification of goods to obtain concessions and extending benefits only to goods which strictly matched the description provided in respective SROs.
Moreover, in respect of 13 tariff lines the import value declared before Pakistan Customs was in excess of $829 million that that recorded by China Customs as export value to Pakistan. This is indicative of possible mis-classification of those goods which attract higher rates of duty but are cleared as goods attracting lower rates.
With such major discrepancies, the Customs have been working on to have EDI with China, Afghanistan and other countries so that the revenue leakages be plugged in, sources said.
