By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The Customs Department was still facing power breakdown as technical fault at the Custom House Karachi was not resolved which badly affected the entire clearance process of foreign trade, besides collectorates are working on standby generators, which have also exhausted after non-stop running for about two days, it is learnt here on Tuesday.
It is pertinent to mention here that the electricity supply of the Customs Department and its adjacent area was interrupted on June 30, the last day of the fiscal year 2012-13 when the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had made special arrangements for duty and tax collection.
Appraisement Collector was one of the most affected collectorates where no stand-by generator was available for several hours. However, alternate arrangements were made later on and collection of duty and tax became possible.
The delay in collection caused about Rs300 million shortfall in revenue recovery of Appraisement Collectorate and many taxpayers failed to process their goods declaration (GD) and avail the amnesty scheme of waiver from default surcharge, fine and penalty.
The Karachi Electricity Supply Company till filing of this report was failed to restore the electricity. The Customs officials said that alternate arrangements would last for two days and it would stop the entire process at Customs building immediately.
On the first day of fiscal year 2013/2014 when the redefinition of territorial jurisdiction implemented, the Appraisement Collectorate failed to process a single GD due to power breakdown as about 60 GDs were filed.
