APCAA urges Customs to revise criteria of examination

All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) has urged Pakistan Customs to revise the criteria of examination with suitable amendments as per international standards to facilitate business community.

In a letter sent to chief collector Appraisement South Suriya Butt, chairman APCAA Arshad Jamal said that as per international standards, the purpose of 5 percent examination of the total imports was nothing but to create deterrence and to facilitate trade by clearing goods through green channel.

Similarly, the Risk Management System (RMS) is also aimed for ease of doing business as harmonization and simplification of procedures are necessary to safe guarded government revenue.

However, the recent modification in the system by customs department is against the spirit of the clearance of goods through green channel as consignments, which were supposed to be cleared through green channel and customs are only allowed 5 percent physical examination of the containers in order to keep a check and avoid any malpractices, are being diverted to yellow channel under the umbrella of RMS.

He described the same as against the spirit of the rules, which causing to disturb the entire supply chain; saying that RMS was selecting containers beyond its prescribed limit for yellow channel with the rationale of intelligence based information.

Arshad said that terminals were presently operating over its capacity as the department was selecting containers more than its limit of 5 percent for examination, creating space shortage.

He said the customs department should develop a mechanism, especially for segregated containers of single item on HS code basis for speedy clearance through green channel; adding that shipping lines should be restricted for correct declaration and in case of violation, punitive measures would be taken against them.

He said that if HS code from VIR or IGM were linked with system then WeBoC software would automatically select containers immediately after submitting VIR/IGM and the terminals only grounded containers in accordance with the auto generated message through WeBOC, which would facilitate customs examination staff for examining containers and upload its reports from the spot; no matter GD was filed or not.

Presently, in yellow channel, the appraising officer is authorised to forward the single item commodity to the terminal operator for physical examination or directly process, whereas single item containers may be substituted by the scanner instead of marking for physical examination, he said and added that those containers carrying any product which required mandatory physical examination or certification such as "Fit for human consumption" or "Expiry date verification" or any ambiguity in "Classification/sampling necessary for test", should be examined.