Online customs clearance system fails to start operation

Shahnawaz Akhter
Saturday, March 02, 2013
From Print Edition

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has failed to implement the online consignment clearance system from March 1 at all customs points across the country due to several flaws in the system itself and failure to address the issues of stakeholders, sources said.

The Web-based One Customs (WeBOC) system was locally developed and was intended to clear goods online, thereby reducing human contact.

“No dry port has online consignment facility for imports,” an official on the condition of anonymity said. “However, the FBR has launched it at various customs points for exports and imports.”

FBR Member (Customs) on the occasion of launching of WeBOC for imports at Air Freight Unit (AFU) Karachi on February 14 had said that the online system would be implemented across the country by February 28.

The latest system was conceptualised in 2009 after the revenue body and the owner of the previous online system, Pakistan Automated Customs Clearance System (PaCCS), developed some differences.

After complete exit of PaCCS, the FBR started WeBOC on trial basis in September 2010 but since then the revenue body has failed to give the system a final touch.

The latest measures have been taken in pursuance of the previous decision on July 4, 2012 for ensuring a seamless and a phased implementation of the electronic clearance system, the official said.

Earlier in September 2012, the FBR had made it mandatory that all goods declaration of exports at the Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) and Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) should be processed through WeBOC.

Recently, Pakistan Customs announced to launch a test-run of WeBOC at Al-Hamd Off Dock Terminal from January 18 but due to several issues regarding clearance the plan was withdrawn.

Sources said that the software has problems of inter-port movement and shifting of statutory regulatory orders (SROs) from manual One-Customs to WeBOC system.

The sources said that the system was facing problems due to the lack of coordination among collectorates, Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL), port operators, bonded carriers and WeBOC development team.

The sources said that NATO and Afghan Transit Trade would continue to get clearance under the One-Customs manual system.

Meanwhile, the stakeholders, including Karachi Customs Agents Association (KCCA) have expressed serious reservations over the FBR’s move, saying that the launching of the system in the present form would result in a disaster for consignment clearance.

“It is our demand to streamline the consignment clearance online,” Saifullah Khan, president of the KCAA, said. “But, at the moment, there is no uniform system and collectorates have different clearance systems,” he added.

Khan said that despite several requests made to the FBR, the WeBOC system remained problematic.

Recently, the KCAA had warned the FBR of port congestion due to slow processing of the consignments and delay in grounding of containers by the KICT under the WeBOC system.

The agents association informed the FBR through a pre-alert that warned about the port congestion because of improper working of risk management system of WeBOC.

The clearing agents’ body suggested various measures for successful operation of the but the revenue body has so far not responded to them.

The FBR has been suggested that the goods declaration should be submitted as per the bill of lading number and machine number will be allocated at the time of duty payment.

In case of review over the goods declaration processing, the KCAA suggested that the review must be made optional and service provider.

It is suggested that the filing of goods declaration should be allowed before the arrival of the vessel, as this will save time. This could be achieved if shipping companies have been asked to file Vessel Intimation Report (VIR) instead of Import General Manifest (IGM) similar to PaCCS.

The KCCA president said that recently the FBR had made it mandatory for all the clearing agents and other stakeholders to upload documents on the system. “The FBR had already completed profile of all the stakeholders and the latest directives were meant to create difficulties,” he added.
thenews.com.pk