ISLAMABAD, June 29: The government has decided to establish advanced passenger information system (APIS) to regulate clearance of passengers, goods at all airports and seaport.

An official told Dawn on Wednesday that legal amendments in section 42 of the Customs Act 1969 has been made in the budget of 2005-06 to make the system legally workable in the country.

The official said that APIS is an automated system capable of performing database queries on passengers and crew members prior to their arrival in or departure from the international airports or seaports.

This system is already in use by the Customs Administrations of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea, added the official.

Elaborating further, the official said that customs officials would soon work out rules for running the new automated system in collaboration with all customs collectorates.

Under the new rules, the domestic and international airliners would be made bound to share the available information regarding passengers and goods with the customs officials.

The official said that new software would be developed to make online interaction with the database of the airlines.