ISLAMABAD: The Customs authorities of Pakistan and China have agreed to establish Electronic Data Exchange System (EDES) and make it operational from July 1, 2016.
“The lack of instant electronic data exchange and sharing of swift sharing of information between the two customs authorities has provided space to corrupt elements who mint-money through mis-declaration and under-invoicing,” a well-placed official source at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told this Customs Today.
The source said that the problem not only existed in case of Pak-China trade but in several other countries such as in case of trade with the Central Asian Republics. The discrepancies in data have often led Pakistani negotiators into awkward situation.
In this regard, the source said that both Pakistani and Chinese authorities held a meeting to review progress of negotiations on the implementation of the system was reviewed in the 6th meeting of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement II (CPFTA-II).
Besides, officials from FBR, Ministry of Commerce was also well represented in the meeting because Additional Secretary Ministry of Commerce, Rubina Ather forcefully advocated Pakistani stance before the Chinese delegation.
The statistics available with the two sides regarding bilateral trade differ hugely due to which the two sides have taken divergent views on several issues arising in the CPFTA meetings.
Recently, the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took note of the issue and directed the Minister for Commerce, Khurram Dastgir Khan to work with the Federal Board of Revenue and chalk out systems to remove these loopholes in the existing systems.
The negotiators of CPFTA-II were convinced that the progress on the EDE is satisfactory and the project will be operational by the agreed deadline. Pakistani side was of the view that the system should be expanded to the whole spectrum of bilateral trade as soon as possible to improve the veracity of trade figures.
