Customs collectors asked to check under-invoicing, misdeclaration
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) M. Abdullah Yusuf has directed the customs collectors to effectively checkunder-invoicing and misdeclaration of goods for plugging possibleavenues of revenue leakages and quick recovery of outstanding arrears.
Addressing a quarterly conference of Collectors of Customs here,he asked the collectors to make concerted efforts to enable FBR to deliverto the economic and material development needs of the country. Underlining the need for bringing improvement in revenuecollection, he said constant monitoring of exemptions regime was necessary in thisrespect.
The Chairman FBR said the customs officials can strengthenthemselves by improving and updating the systems and procedures. " We must rely on automated systems and procedures instead ofmanual ones to achieve the desired results", he remarked. He also directed thecollectors to send monthly reports on recovery of arrears.
Abdullah Yusuf advised the collectors that at any point of time relevant collector must know what (goods) was in the transit concerninghis collectorate. He said the system was supposed to put time-line for aconsignment and if a consignment was not reached at any particular destination withinthe time limit, there should be a flash on the system indicating itsnon-arrival.
He asked the Customs officials to strengthen themselves by strengthening and updating the systems and procedures. Earlier, Secretary (Customs Budget) Muhammad Saleem informed thatthe total customs duty collection for the month of January, 2008 stood atRs. 12.4 billion as against Rs. 9.6 billion collected last year duringthe same period, thus registering a growth of 29.1%. The target ofcustoms duty collection for January, 2008 was Rs 10.1 billion.
Duty collection in first six months (July-December) of current financial year is Rs. 61.6 billion as compared to Rs. 60.7 billioncollected in the same period last year, he said. He said the major revenue spinners were edible oil, electrical machinery, plastic articles, papers and paper-boards, articles of ironsand steel, soap and detergents.
Regarding improvisation of One-customs system, M/S PakistanRevenue Automation Limited (PRAL) has been asked to improvise the One-customssoftware which may include, among other solution, assigning of separatedestination codes for NLC Dry Port Amangarh, Railways Dry Ports atPeshawar.
The conference was also informed that M/s PRAL's existing Transshipment Permit (TP) Monitoring Module was being improvised. It was further decided to establish dedicated TP/AP section at Appraisement, Prot Qasim collectorates in Karachi and at Chaman collectorate (Quetta) for daily manifest clearance of each border carrier. Similar arrangement was proposed for Lahore and Quetta collectorates.
It was further told that the Preventive Collectorate, Karachi was developing a procedure in consultation with PIA authorities, for TPs moved through PIA. Once notified, the system will be replicated at other Freight Units.
In addition to this, Appraisement and Port Qasim collectorates were developing procedure for acknowledgment of TPs filed by clearing agents for ships spare-parts.