Lack of staff delays cargo clearance

KARACHI: Karachi Customs Agents Association (KCAA) on Wednesday highlighted an alarming situation at clearance stage due to shortage of relevant customs staff at the collectorates.

The KCAA informed the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) regarding the unavailability of staff for clearance of consignments at custom stations ie Model Customs Collectorate Appraisement and Facilitation of East, West, AFU, Port Qasim and Exports.

Unnecessary delay of several days was being faced by traders in the clearance of their consignments, and as a result they were incurring additional costs, the KCCA said. The association highlighted that the appraisement staff was quite busy attending court matters and other legal matters on a regular basis.

“Most of the goods declarations remain in queue for two to three days before being assigned to the relevant officers for examination,” it said, adding that it takes another two to three days for grounding and examination.

“After examination it takes further two to three days for the goods declaration to be opened by the assessment officer,” the association pointed out. The KCAA said there was only one examiner posted for examination at all three sheds at Air Freight Unit causing severe delays for clearance of air consignments which were often urgent in nature. “Dilemma is that the concerned assistant collector/deputy collector is over burdened by multiple charges and is busy with file work ie board’s issues, audit and recovery etc and unable to pay their full attention towards the group monitoring and hearing,” it said.

The association pointed out that in the prevailing situation the raw materials used for exports were not being cleared within a timeframe. “This will result in export order loss in coming days,” it pointed out.