Customs top officials meet businessmen

Customs top officials meet businessmen

Lahore: Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo, President FPCCI, has welcomed Mr. Wajid Ali, Chief Collector MCC Appraisement & Facilitation (South), to Federation House along with other senior customs officials; namely, Dr. Tahir Qureshi, Collector Customs (West) and Mr. Fayyaz Rasool Maken, Collector Customs (East). The visit was aimed at detailed discussions on customs-related issues chronically faced by the business, industry and trade community of Pakistan; and, brainstorming for their resolution on a fast-track basis.

Mr. Nasir Khan, VP FPCCI, said that issues of misuse of concessions given to erstwhile FATA & PATA are discouraging other manufacturers. He also emphasized the need to better regulate container terminals to prevent losses to the traders.

Mr. Hanif Lakhany, VP FPCCI, expressed his dissatisfaction that the Classifications Committee in Customs House does not have representation of the apex trade body of Pakistan, i.e. FPCCI.

Mr. Shabbir Mansha Churra, Convener of FPCCI’s Central Standing Committee on Customs, appreciated the online process of FTA Verification and requested the customs officials to further pursue the agenda of reforms and automation in consultation with business community. He also expressed his concerns over the recent hack of FBR’s system and questioned the security of confidential data of the business community.

Mr. Shabbir Mansha Churra said that the business community faces a lot of hardship on account encashment of Pay Orders submitted with customs for Valuation, Section 81 or Miscellaneous disputes; as authorities do not inform the traders before encashment and the refunds take time and efforts unnecessarily.

Participating traders in the meeting also expressed their concerns over delay in manual resolutions of the cases of amendments & refunds; demurrage charges far exceeding contravention reports; lack of uniformity in the disposal of Sections 81, 25A, 25D and excessive adjudication cases.

FPCCI demands that container terminals should be regulated as per provisions under 203, 14, 14A of the Customs Act; and, best practices as per international standards should be adopted. Container terminals also need to invest in their infrastructure, machinery and capacity building.

Last but not the least, FPCCI was promised by Mr. Shaukat Tarin, Federal Finance Minister for Finance & Revenue, that a help desk will be set up at Federation House; and as a result, Help Desk for Sales and Income Tax has been notified. FPCCI requests customs department to set up a Help Desk for customs-related issues as well at FPCCI Head Office to make timely resolution of customs disputes a reality.