KARACHI: MCC Appraisement East has notified the draft procedure for the import of duty free containers through the 2nd draft of Import Manual prepared by Deputy collector Asim Rehman.

Ship containers both empty and import filled can be temporarily imported without payment of customs duty and other taxes by shipping agent or by any individual. Such containers are imported for a period of six months on furnishing a bank guarantee and are to be re-exported after expiry of stipulated time period.

A customs-licensed shipping agent can import such containers on furnishing an undertaking on a non-judicial stamp paper. Such containers are imported for six months which is further extendable for six months by the Collector.

According to the proposed procedure, the concerned shipping line or the authorized agent declares the empty containers in the IGM. The WeBOC system auto fetches the details of such duty free temporarily imported containers. The concerned shipping agent uploads the undertaking on the prescribed format through its unique user ID.

After submission of all the requisite details, the authorized officer will feed the case file number and remarks in the system through its unique user ID. In case the duty free container is not exported within a period of 06 months, the concerned shipping line/ Shipping agent can file a request for extension of time period.

Upon online receipt of such request, SPS and AC/DC licensing forward the case manually to the Collector of Customs for granting extension for a period of six months.

The authorized officer will also feed the date of arrival and the date of departure of those containers against the IGMs for the purpose of reconciliation. In case the container is damaged, the concerned shipping line/ Shipping agent shall inform the SPS licensing and also make payment of the amount of duty/taxes.

The SPS licensing shall feed the cash number and date of the payment of duty and taxes against that container and IGM details. In case the container is not re-exported within the stipulated period of six months or within such extended time period as allowed by the Collector, an alert shall be generated by the system.

The SPS licensing will forward the case online to the AC/DC licensing for imposition of tine and penalty under the law. In such cases, the SPS licensing shall manually calculate the amount of duty/taxes leviable thereon and also feed the same in the system.

In case of import by any individuals, bank guarantee shall be encashed. The amount of fine/penalty may also be auto debited from the PD accounts of the shipping lines. If a person wishes to lease out a temporarily imported container to another person, both may submit written applications to the Collector of Customs who may allow the ‘on-hiring’ party to retain the container for the remaining period on receipt of fresh security and may discharge the security given by the party ‘off-hiring’ the container. In such cases the retention period of the container shall be computed from the date of its first import.