‘FBR to soon resolve policy, operation issues of export scheme’

LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday assured resolution of all policy and operation issues related to the Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) on priority.

The assurance was given by FBR Member Customs Mukarram Jah Ansari during a meeting organised by All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on the problems that association members were facing on account of the EFS.

Ansari said that maximum export of the country would be switched over to the EFS by January 1, 2023, and the FBR would continue to hold sessions with export associations on different policy and operation matters of the scheme.

Collector Customs Sambrial was appointed as focal person to discuss all the EFS issues for earlier resolutions. He asked APTMA member mills to forward all their issues related to the EFS to the FBR through APTMA for immediate resolution.

APTMA members highlighted that the condition of value-addition was not possible in the current scheme of global recession, when commodity prices and values of manufactured goods were constantly descending.

Responding to this issue, Ansari said that all export schemes were launched with the intent and purpose of fetching more foreign exchange. However, he expressed sympathies with the textile exporters, who were procuring inputs at higher value, when the price of the end product has rescinded. He asked APTMA to send a detailed reference to the FBR about this exceptional situation for redressal. Earlier, Collector Customs, Lahore, Ambreen Tarar explained the main features of the EFS. She said all the exporters should apply for the EFS, as all the existing schemes would become redundant by August 2023.

Director General Customs Automation Imran Mohmmand said that all pending modules of the EFS, especially indirect export module, transfer of inputs and intermediary goods have been developed. “These modules have either been deployed or under trial operations,” he said.

The FBR would hold a detailed training workshop on indirect export module and other system-related aspects at APTMA Lahore on November 3, 2022 to educate exporters on salient features of the modules, Mohmmand informed.

In his welcome address, Senior Vice Chairman of APTMA North Zone, Kamran Arshad thanked member customs and other customs officers for expeditiously honouring their commitment of rolling out indirect export and other modules of the EFS, which were pending since promulgation of the scheme in July, 2021.

However, he said, still some policy and operation issues needed urgent attention of the department. According to him, all the indirect export GD filed manually to date should be loaded in the system to avoid any future complications.

Similarly, he said, transfer of plant and machinery in case of merger of two EFS users was not being allowed yet despite complying with all procedures and formalities of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, FBR, banks and other regulators.