Customs axes single window’s cost by $100 million

ISLAMABAD: Customs authorities significantly slashed the cost of Pakistan single window to connect all departments for clearance of goods at entry/exit points to $67 million from $167 million, officials said on Friday.

They told the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Chairman Javed Ghani the authorities would use local resources to build up the digital network while he inaugurated the head office of Pakistan Single Window (PSW) Company.

Ghani lauded efforts of Pakistan Customs to roll out PSW system almost a year before its deadline of June 2022 set under World Trade Organization’s trade facilitation agreement. He also appreciated customs for reducing the project cost.

The Prime Minister had tasked customs to complete this highly transformational project for reducing time, cost and complication while ensuring better compliances with cross-border trade regulations. To ensure that this new system is timely implemented and sustainably maintained, the PSW Company has been operationalised by FBR.

The PSW Company is now enabling the government to maintain complete ownership of this mission critical system of strategic national importance as it would handle entire cross-border trade, related logistics and financial transactions.

FBR’s Member Customs Operation Tariq Huda said customs administration is leveraging its expertise in automation for PSW to support a wide array of other public and private sector entities involved in regulation of imports, exports and transit trade. The ongoing digitisation of related public sector entities under this project will substantially improve their efficiency.

PSW is instrumental for Pakistan to become a preferred route for international transit and transshipment. Besides, it will help integrate upcoming national, regional and global single window systems. PSW will boost exports, help attract foreign direct investment and enable better integration into global value chains. It will also serve as the trade information portal.

This project has financial and technical assistance from the World Bank, US Agency for International Development, and UK-based Department for International Development.

The sources said Prime Minister Office will have to play a key role for binding all the concerned departments to integrate the system without wasting anytime. “Without having political backing, this system will never get implemented in our country,” a source said.

The government believes that the system would emerge as the overarching umbrella for automating public sector entities dealing with cross-border trade providing an integrated single interface with private sector to carry out imports, exports and transit trade.

“This will substantially improve Pakistan’s ranking in ease of doing business besides enabling Pakistan to comply with its commitment under the trade facilitation agreement of the WTO,” an official statement said.

The Pakistan Single Window will help in developing the country’s initiative for its electronic logistics platform, which the finance minister said should be done within the next three years.

WinPak will link all key cross border trade related regulatory authorities including Web-based One Customs on a single information and communication technology-based platform. Umar said the connected government approach will improve transparency and predictability in imports and exports while cutting down costs/time, both for public and private sectors.

The much needed port community system will also be established to improve efficiency of sea and airports in Pakistan under the project. Government to government and business to government transactions will take place on the new platform, which will also facilitate all business-to-business transactions.

The finance minister said the project’s team should not merely rely on technology deployment and adopt holistic approach in simplifying the complex regulatory regime and allied laws to meaningfully improve trading across border regime in Pakistan.