ISLAMABAD: FBR Member Customs Nisar Muhammad has said that the Pakistan Customs had framed and notified vide SRO 121(1)12014 new rules for Afghan Transit Trade and currently 27 percent of the imported consignments are being cleared under the ‘green channel’ facility of WeBOC clearance system.
He was replying queries posed by members of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance regarding transportation of US/ISAF/Nato consignments back from Afghanistan to Pakistan. The FBR Member Customs said that the FBR had successfully launched WeBOC customs clearance system for reverse containerised US Army/ISAF/Nato cargo. “Pakistan Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement (PATTA) was signed on October 20, 2010 and the FBR framed and notified rules for the agreement vide SRO 601(1)/2011 on June 13, 2011,” he informed.
He said that the processing and clearance of transit cargo, to and from Afghanistan, was being done under ‘One Customs system’ until recently, under the aforesaid rules. Being a hybrid system, One-Customs was not fully automated and it involved both manual and computerised processes, Nisar Muhammad said.
In view of the shortcomings associated with this system, FBR conceived a fully automated, end to end electronically integrated, swift and safe Customs Computerised System known as WeBOC system, for processing and clearance of Afghan transit trade cargo of all types. In order to implement the WeBOC system, new rules were framed and notified vide SRO 121(1)12014, the Member Customs elaborated.
He said that FBR successfully launched the WeBOC system, under the new rules, in the different areas. The FBR Member Customs said that the WeBOC system for the processing and clearances of US Army/Nato/ISAF forward cargo from Karachi had been launched successfully since September, 2013. The WeBOC system for the clearances of forward containerised Afghan Transit Trade commercial cargo from Karachi has also been launched from February 1, 2014. The WeBOC system for Reverse containerised US Army/ISAF/Nato cargo has also been launched from January 20, 2014.
Nisar Muhammad informed the senators that a mechanism had been developed for the issuance of User IDs to Afghan traders, both provisionally and permanently and necessary training sessions had been imparted to the traders, transport operators, Customs agents and Customs staff, prior to the launch of WeBOC system.
However, changes are being made in the WeBOC system to insert the following Modules/processes:- Forward Non-Commercial Transit Trade cargo from Karachi; Forward Commercial bulk, loose and non-containerised cargo from Karachi; Reverse commercial/non-commercial cargo (containerised, bulk and loose); Reverse US Military/Nato/ISAF bulk, loose and non-containerised cargo; EDI between WeBOC system and Karachi Port Trust (KPT) Port Qasim Authority; Hooking up of tracking system software of M/s TPL with WeBOC system; Software for uploading of images of containers, seal and trackers at Karachi ports and exit stations; and Software for uploading the scanned images directly from the scanners in the WeBO.
The FBR members claimed that since its introduction on February 24, new Afghan Transit Trade Rules had been functioning smoothly except some teething problems, adding that in fact the introduction of new rules under WeBOC system had made the processing and clearance of transit trade cargo faster.
