Customs take steps to check tampering of high security seals

KARACHI: Pakistan Customs has adopted a procedure to prevent incidents of tampering high security seals from the containers to deprive the national exchequer of duty and taxes.

Sources in Pakistan Customs on Tuesday said a number of incidents had been reported where seals had been tampered from the containers in order to replace the invoices of goods. “The invoices are being replaced to match description and quantity of goods as per goods declaration filed by importers to clear their goods,” a customs official said.

Sources said the customs authorities had recently identified a large number of fake invoices for goods mis-declarations.

A customs official said ships carrying imported goods had also invoices issued by manufacturers of the country of origin. “But in order to suppress the values, some elements were involved in removing the genuine invoices and replacing those with the fake invoices,” the official said. The official said it was mandatory for the customs clearing staff to ensure valuation of goods on the basis of invoices available in the containers.

Sources said as per new procedure, terminal operators would be responsible to assure that seals were properly applied and removed at the time of examination. “They (terminal operators) will also ensure that the seal / de-sealing is covered on 24/7 basis by CCTV and recordings are stored for a period of 15 days,” as per the procedure.

According to the procedure, the seal should be applied in a manner that renders access to wire entry point on the seal body inaccessible by placing it under the door handle/slot of the containers in case of containerised cargo. In case of loose cargo, the seal should be placed at any appropriate spot where entry point is blocked.

Photographs of the applied seal should be taken and kept in record. The seals should invariably be applied / removed by the customs officers posted for the purpose. In those cases where seals have to be removed, the procedure should be adopted that seal had not been subjected to any tampering attempt. In case of any sign of damage or appearance of tampering, the officer de-sealing the container should immediately report the incident to concerned department for taking prompt action against the culprits.