09 January 2005	Sunday	27 Ziqa'ad 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has installed machines at Karachi customs house, which will reduce the maximum time from three hours to 10 minutes for clearance of documents.

Member Information Management System Aamir Z. Chaudry told Dawn on Saturday that the machine was in operation from January 1, 2005 installed at Karachi with a complete back up system, which would facilitate both the importers and exporters in clearance of their documents.

He said that within next four to six months the system would be extended to all dry ports and customs stations across the country for maintaining uniformity in assessment of imported goods at all customs stations.

The machine, he said, would not only help in providing uniformity in assessment of goods but would also help to a great extent in reducing the chances of under-invoicing and tax frauds causing harm to local industries.

The CBR has already compiled the reference value in two volumes, which would be fed in the computer system and would be made available for reference at all customs collectorates across the country.

Such a value reference guide could be very useful tool for the assessing officers and it would also help in maintaining uniformity of assessment at all customs stations, he added.

It was observed that the occasional discrepancy in valuation of identical goods cleared from north and south cities of Pakistan was another area of concern for traders.

According to him, there have been instances where identical goods cleared from Karachi were assessed at a value different than at Lahore.

According to the member, it was estimated that around 1000 customs officials could work at a time on the system. The system would also provide accurate figures of imports and exports.

He said that the machine would help in removing the lengthy processing time and downing problems, which resulted in delaying the clearance of goods at ports.

According to the member, the CBR has also established a weight management system at Karachi ports, which would determine the actual weight of the goods in containers transported from any dry port of the country before its shipment to any country. This would help in checking of over-shipment of any product or banned products.

The member said that CBR has also decided to implement a uniform standardization of business process for filing of all documents at all customs collectorates.

He said a system has already been worked out which would be implemented after the approval of the member customs.

Currently, each collector has its own process of working in their respective collectorates, which creating problems for the taxpayers and businessmen.