KARACHI: A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Omar Sial on Monday adjourned hearing of constitution petitions seeking clearance of imported consignments through WeBOC or Green channel system till Dec 05 as representative for respondents including Pakistan Customs were called absent.
The petitions were filed by number of importers and trade association seeking assessment of their consignments under the WeBOC facility which was suspended and consignments were presently cleared under “One Custom” clearance system.
According to petitioners including leading petitioner All Pakistan Tiles Association represented by Franklin Law Associates, Sindh High Court hearing petitions against imposition of Regulatory Duty on more than 400 items allowed interim relief wherein release of consignments were ordered and importers of tiles were allowed to benefit from a SRO attracting custom duty and other taxes at concessionary rates.
In order to nullify the said order in favor of the importers of tiles, the Custom authorities have stopped clearing the consignments under weboc and are assessing and clearing the consignment under “One Custom” facility. As a result the rate of clearance is very slow as 5 -7 consignments are cleared daily while previously under WeBOC system 50 or more consignments were cleared daily. The importers are facing a loss of rupees 0.4 to 06 million per consignment in terms of demurrage charges, the petitioners maintains praying to the court to direct the custom authorities to revert back to WeBOC system saving the importers from delay as well as demurrage charges.