FBR mulls overhauling of WeBOC system

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has planned to restructure and overhaul the Customs computerised system (WeBOC), which would include replacement of equipment along with the signing of support and maintenance contract, an official said on Monday.

FBR Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan has called a high-level meeting in Islamabad to deliberate upon the reasons of Customs computerised system shutdown this Saturday, which resulted in suspension of Customs clearance of import and export consignments.

The official said the meeting scheduled to be held on Tuesday would consider updating of equipment, which was in a poor state. Moreover, the WeBOC support and maintenance contract with the IBM had expired over a year ago and the board would likely to approve renewal of this contract.

Customs computerised system shuts down across the country on Saturday, stopping Customs clearance. The incident primarily occurred as the storage hard discs were not replaced after completion of the warranty life.

The entire Storage Area Network (SAN) collapsed, suspending all the Customs computerised system operations.

Sources said the WeBOC project director had sent several reminders to the Information Management System (IMS) Department, Islamabad, as well as network and structure team in Islamabad, mentioning the state of equipment and requested immediate replacement of the equipment.

However, no action was taken in this regard.  Just the consignments processed through the Green Channel were cleared, while the consignments through Yellow and Red Channels were not processed.

Only 30 percent of the consignments are cleared through the green channel.

The official said that the warranty of the equipment expired last year, while the support and maintenance contract with the IBM had also expired and was not renewed.