KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is considering putting off dock terminals under the jurisdiction of Customs so that off-terminals may also be held responsible in case of any untoward incident.
A new Rule has been proposed that provisions of the rule 548 to 554 shall mutatis mutandis apply to off-dock Terminal Operators subject to such exceptions or changes as notified by the Board from time to time.
Moreover, the Board is also considering adding a new Rule to regulate the registration of Customs agents association.
The Board is considering the proposal of MCC Appraisement West to be incorporate in Federal Budget 2015-16 providing that each Custom Agent shall enroll himself as a member of the Custom Agent Association if there is one registered in the Collectorate and recognized by the Collector of Customs.
The Custom Agent Association shall obtain authorization from the Collector of Customs if it intends to establish or amend its bylaws. The members of such association shall be barred to be member of any association which is not registered with the Collectorate.
Currently there is no provision in law to regulate the registration of custom agents association as compared to legislation of other countries like Korea, India and Philippines.
As a result of this a number of associations have cropped up owing there legitimacy to under other laws / Acts which are not relevant to the nature of the job i.e. service provider.
Over the last two years it has been strongly observed that the bonded carrier files wake and false declarations at the time of filling TP-GDs. In such cases the transshipped goods are pilfered and route to final port of destination and replaced by other goods.
Since there is no check filling of correct and true declaration of TP-GD, amendment is proposed in Rule 423 that the definition of GD-TP should be changed to ‘GD-TP means Goods Declaration for transshipment filed electronically containing a true declaration of goods in terms of clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 79 by the owner of the goods or his authorized bonded carrier for transshipment of goods’.
An amendment is proposed in Rule 426 that the Collector should be authorized to order for verification of the genuineness of particulars of any specific user, or class or category of users through any means before or after issuance of unique user identifier, including verification of biometrics of the concerned person(s).
Proposed amendment will empower the Collector for verification of the particulars of any specific user including verification through biometrics. This verification through biometrics can be adopted to check unscrupulous commercial importers clearing goods on self assessment basis.
An amendment has been proposed in Rule 489, which will help in preventing of leakage of revenue through pilferage of transshipped goods during there movement to up country dry-ports.
It is proposed that the owner of goods or his authorized bonded carrier shall access the Customs Computerized System through his assigned User ID, for filing online Goods Declaration for transshipment (GD-TP), at the port of entry against the bill of lading manifested for transshipment in the IGM.
Before the submission of on-line GD-TP, it shall be ensured that it contains a true declaration of goods in terms of clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 79 i.e; actual item wise description, PCT code, quantity, quality and weight of the goods under transshipment is as per declarations in the IGM, invoice and packing list. The importer or his authorized agent or bonded carrier shall make the self assessment of duty and taxes chargeable on the imported goods and stating the total tax liability giving breakup of the leviable duty/taxes but without payment of assessed duty taxes at first port/airport of entry. Copy of B/L, invoice and packing shall be up loaded in the system. No new GD shall be filed at the port/airport of destination.