ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Abdullah Yousuf has directed all collectors of Customs to give their feedback within 15 days on the proposed model of Post-clearance Audit (PCA) before it is finalized.

He was speaking at the quarterly conference of collectors of Customs here on Tuesday. It was attended by all collectors of Customs to review the performance of collectorates in the last two quarters and to evolve a strategy for revenue optimization.

Project director PCA in Pakistan Customs, in his Presentation, outlined the concept, objectives, nature and techniques of the system.

He also briefly mentioned the salient features of the existing PCA systems in other countries like Japan, UK, Ireland, and Uganda etc. He presented the PCA model to be introduced in Pakistan.

Commenting on the model, Mr Yusuf said that it may be a new system for Pakistan but it has already been successfully practiced in many countries of the world.

He called upon the collectors to study the model and send their feedback within next 15 days to enable the board to take necessary decision on the same.

The chairman also asked the collectors to have a constant check on the items prone to mis-declaration, under-invoicing and smuggling. He also observed that there were leakages in Duty and Tax Remission for Export (DTRE) system and these were also required to be looked into properly.

Talking about mis-reporting of the data and difference in transmission of data electronically and transfer of data through faxes, the chairman directed the collectors to personally supervise the exercise and take all corrective measures in this regard, which should include designation of an officer exclusively for this job.

“No un-authorized person should be allowed to load data on the web, it should be done by the CBR headquarters only,” the chairman said and added: “Collectors are required to be more pro-active and maintain strict vigilance over the feeding of the data.”

Director General Inspection and Internal Audit Muhammad Ramzan Bhatti, in his presentation, outlined the salient points of the study for improvement in the working, security and proper maintenance of the record of the collectorates.

Commenting on the report, Mr Yusuf underlined the need to further improve the system and procedures. He said that the primary duty of the directorate was to pre-empt and streamline things in the collectorates for anybody’s inspection from outside the board. He also advised that every collectorate must designate a coordinating officer for dealing with audit cases.

Later, Member Legal, CBR, in his briefing informed the conference that there were about 3,000 pending adjudication cases in different collectorates in which an amount of Rs20 billion was involved. He requested the collectors for an early disposal of such cases.

The chairman reminded the collectors that the period of 90 days was sufficient for the disposal of a case. He asked them to clear all the pendency within next three months. He also expressed the need to review all the cases filed by the department in the Tribunal.