Tax authorities to improve clearance system

KARACHI: Tax authorities are considering to restrict online submission of import documents to a person only in order to preempt discrepancy in facts filing, an official said on Monday. 

Pakistan Customs proposed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that certain limits may be imposed on the access of importers and shipping and clearing agents to its web-based clearance system.

The official said customs recently unearthed a fraud as the system allowed the shipping agents to file import general manifest (IGM) without any restriction or check.

The official said customs made some recommendations to the FBR, which are in the stage of vetting at the moment to avoid such frauds in future.

“ The import general manifest  may only be delivered either by the person in-charge of the conveyance or his authorised agent,” the customs department said. “A discrepancy report may be generated by WeBOC (Web Based One Customs) system whenever there is mismatch between the master bill of lading and house bill of lading.”

It was proposed that information regarding port of loading, port of last call and port of loading of the container as per  import general manifest  should be made available to the assessing officer at the time of assessment.