Pakistan Customs, being the member of World Customs Organization (WCO), celebrated International Customs Day, on 26th Jan, 2019. WCO slogan for the year is “SMART Border swift and smooth cross- border movement of goods, people and means of transport”.
The celebrations of International Customs Day began at the Custom House Quetta with the hoisting of flag followed by parade, thereafter a function was held at the premises of the office.
The chief guest was Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Chudhry, Chief Collector (Enforcement) Quetta, distributed certificates of appreciation to the officers/officials on their meritorious services for department and also motivated the spirit of Customs staff for effective public service delivery. [the_ad id=”31605″] He also distributed shields and certificate among the top import and export and clearing agents. Chief Collector during his speech welcomed both Quetta and Chaman chambers and the notables. He assured them to solve their issue on priority basis.
He said and creating office of Chief collector Quetta would help solve the issue of the Customs staff and business community on priority and urgent basis. He stated that Custom Day celebrations give us message that economic zones and borders are the soul of economic stability. He offered full support regarding promotions of MCC Quetta staff.
Ashraf Ali Collector of Customs, in his opening remarks welcomed the participants and briefly explained the concept of “SMART Borders for seamless trade travel and transport”. He stated that MCC Quetta has taken many measures to work towards achieving SMART borders. Despite considerable emphasis by higher authorities, Customs could not launch the Web-Based One Customs WeBOC System at Chaman.
He stated that customs plays vital role in the economic development of the country. To enhance business with neighboring countries Pakistan Customs has so many sessions with Iranian and Afghan delegations in Pakistan and Iran. Easy and simple procedure for growing business and exchange data, formation of banking system and transport issues were discussed.
Money laundering another issue facing Pakistan’s economy. Customs Quetta has already established special desk on Quetta International Airport regarding currency declaration system.
More than Rs22 billion revenue was collected during the financial year 2017-18 surpassing targets of Rs18 billion. During the first six month of 2018-19 Customs Quetta surpassed the given target and collected an amount of 13.286 billion.
President Quetta Chambers of Commerce Juma Khan also spoke on the occasion.