Customs advises FBR torevisit importers’ database

Green channel facility

KARACHI: Pakistan Customs asked the apex tax authority to review the list of importers qualified for the facility under which their consignments are cleared without assessment and examination after it found mis-declaration in consignments, a top official said on Wednesday.

Shaukat Ali, director general at Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was recommended to review the database of importers availing green channel facility for the goods clearance.

Ali said the FBR was informed about a fresh case in which an importer was found misusing the green channel facility and got his general consignments cleared under the garb of machinery scraps. 

“The directorate recommends (the FBR) to re-profiling the green channel importers,” Ali added.  Pakistan Customs clears imported consignments on the basis of three different categories, including red, orange and green. Around 45 percent of total imports into the country are cleared through green channel that implies clearance without examination and assessment. The country’s total annual import was recorded at $44.765 billion in the fiscal year of 2015/16, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The green channel facility is extended to reputable importers to facilitate their imports under the Web-based One Customs – an online documents filing system. Importers are qualified to the facility only after getting around 100 consignments cleared in a row.

Early this week, the directorate seized around three suspicious containers passing off the channel. An importer declared his consignment as scrap, but the examination by the intelligence officers uncovered a huge quantity of fabric, cosmetics and other electronic items, which attempted clearance without duty and taxes.

Ali said total four containers were seized. The Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) at Port Muhammad Bin Qasim cleared the consignments. One container was cleared under yellow channel under which a customs officer was given only one minute for the assessment.

The market value of seized goods was estimated at around Rs73 million.  The DG said at least three customs officers posted at MCC Port Qasim were nominated in the FIR for assisting mis-declaration in this case.

Ali said the Islamabad directorate received reports of mis-declaration at MCC Port Qasim with the connivance of customs officials. He said the importer of seized containers imported 130 consignments during the past four years. “Around 40 consignments of the importer were found suspicious,” he said. “Customs authorities are further investigating the issue.”

The DG said the directorate has further improved its vigilance on goods cleared through the green channel. Two principal appraisers, including Asad Aleem and Muhammad Ibrahim and one appraiser Akbar Chandio had been nominated in the FIR. Importer Khurram Iqbal and clearing agent Malik Jamshed Jawaid were also nominated. However, the directorate has so far been unable to arrest any involved person.