FBR assures swift clearance of export consignments

KARACHI: Mukarram Jah Ansari, Member Custom, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has assured the business community of swift clearance of consignments and resolving issues pertaining to exports, a statement said on Friday.

A delegation of Towel Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (TMA) met Ansari to apprise him about obstacles related export shipments.

“Only one scanner is working at Port Qasim, due to this, shipments taking more time to complete scanning process,” TMA South circle chairman Syed Usman Ali highlighted.

He urged the member custom to ensure availability of more than one scanner 24 hours in a day for timely movement of exporters’ shipments.

“The Process of Export Receiving Information (ERI) is very slow, and needs to be swift. Night examination facilities of containers are not available; it should be available 24/7,” Ali added.

Highlighting other issues, he informed that duty drawback refunds were not being disbursed as per desired results, and the system generated a message for required documents while the documents were already submitted.

“Bankers are not updating data in PSW System according to its real-time requirement; hence settlement of financial statement does not reflect the amounts of duty drawback.”

Registration of SRO 957 was cumbersome and it should be simplified for the exporters, the official said, suggesting that there was a need for nomination of a focal person from the FBR to resolve day to day issues of the exporters.

Member Custom Mukarram Jah Ansari assured the delegation of resolving the mentioned issues and taking measures for export boost. “We are putting our best efforts to remove all the bottlenecks, which are facing the export sector.”

Ansari hailed the role of the export oriented association, saying the sector play a vital role for generation of employment in the country and earning valuable foreign exchange for the national exchequer.

Noting the issues and suggestions put forward by TMA, he assured to have another meeting with the association to discuss the status of the issues.