KARACHI: Directorate of Post Clearance Audit (PCA) Karachi has detected loss of revenue to the tune of Rs30 million, as a number of importers evaded the recently imposed Regulatory Duty on consignments mostly cleared from the green channel.
There is an inherent flaw in the green channel system, where there is no examination and scrutiny of consignments. In Europe, 98 percent importers don’t indulge in revenue evasion, but the scene is quite different in Pakistan.
Federal government vide SRO 1035(1)12017 has imposed Regulatory duty on 731 items with effect from 17.10.2017.
Director PCA Nadeem Memon formed a team comprising Additional Director Naeem Akhtar, Deputy Directors Rana Aftab and Mehwish Shah to investigate the phenomenon. The team retrieved large number of case of non-imposition/non-payment of RD on items cleared from MCC Appraisement (West), MCC Port Muhammad Bin Qasim and MCC Appraisement (East), Karachi.
These Goods Declarations were then further scrutinized which had been cleared through Customs Computerized Clearance System WEBOC, resulting into identification of thirty-five consignments which had been out of charged by Customs without payment of regulatory duty amounting to over Rs30 million.
Audit Observations in all the identified cases have been issued by the Directorate of Post Clearance Audit, Karachi. The traders in a number of cases also deposited the amount of RD evaded by them while in other cases the traders have agreed to pay the amount.
It may be mentioned here PCA is formed to check and detect revenue leakages. It is a very important directorate in the web-based computerized clearance environment. However, the PCA is considered to be the bad posting. An official suggested there should be a system that all the Customs officers should be posted in PCA for sometime and they should be assigned targets.
Moreover, it is not good to weaken the examination. Now, appraisers are doing out-of-charge of GDs and the role of Principal Appraiser is eliminated, which actually eliminated the cross-check.
Appraising Officer should mark the GDs to Principal Appraiser or AC/DC for out-of-charge, the revenue leakages through mis-declaration and under-invoicing can be eliminated.