KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified procedure for disbursement of goods declaration (GD) charges, which were imposed in 2011 against processing of GD of imported consignments.
A GD is filed for the clearance of every imported consignment and Customs charge Rs250/GD as the processing fee. The amount so collected is added to a fund formed primarily for the welfare of Customs employees.
An official said the fund had reached around Rs1.2 billion; 70 percent of the amount collected will be spend through PRAL for procurement of hardware/software, up-gradation, maintenance of FBR’s system and hiring of technical resource persons for time-bound reforms projects.
It was learnt that customs web based clearance system (WeBOC), which is run and maintained by PRAL, had been encountering problems and shut down often because of the lack of proper maintenance and up-gradation. An official said system should be upgraded to facilitate smooth and speedy customs clearance, but utilizing the fund formed for the welfare of employees was not a good idea.
The balance 30 percent of the amount collected will be transferred to the central customs common pool fund (CCPF), to be utilized for the purposes enumerated in unified CPF Rules.
It will be ensured that an annual audit of collection and disbursement is conducted through one of the top four chartered accountant firms of the country.