KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified that imports of second-hand/used clothing of all origins will pass through WeBOC red channel.

However, in order to avoid choking of terminals, percentage of examination of imported consignments will be done by the clearance collectorates on the basis of selectivity criteria as imports from some origins are considered more risky.

A meeting of the committee formed by Minister of Finance in order to discuss and resolve the problems being faced by the All Pakistan Textile Mills and other associations was held in FBR recently.

The associations raised issues regarding misdeclarations in the consignments of second-hand/used clothing. Accordingly, the meeting decided the processing of all such consignments through red channel.

Earlier, the consignments of used clothing passed randomly through red, green and yellow channels. Sources said that later due to some reasons all the consignments of used clothing started being cleared through the green channel.

Consequently, certain elements took undue benefit of this facility and clothing and liquor from Korea, electronics from Japan and England were being imported through misdeclaration in the garb of second hand clothing.

Recently, MCC Appraisement East detected one such case and lodged an FIR. Afterwards, a process was initiated which resulted in the above mentioned guidelines.

It may be mentioned here that unscrupulous elements have setup their officers in several countries particularly China, Korea, Japan and England. These elements used to mis-declare high duty attracting goods as used and second hand clothing to evade duty and taxes.