January 23, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 03, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The government will launch a new cargo clearance system from Feb 1 at all airports and ports for round-the-clock clearance of exportable and importable goods, says Chairman, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), M. Abdullah Yousuf, here on Monday.

The new system to remain operative 24 hours a day and all the seven days a week would not only save the time of traders to a large extent, but would also considerably reduce cost of doing business.

Chairing quarterly conference of collectors of customs and collectors (appeals), the chairman said the new initiative was in the best interest of trade.

Emphasising on execution of the system in an efficient manner, Mr Yousuf advised the collectors that there should be no slackness. This historic decision of the government must be implemented in its true spirit as it would facilitate traders tremendously, he added.

Commenting on the performance of the collectorates, the chairman urged the customs collectors to effectively check the tendency of miss-declaration and under-valuation as this menace was depriving the government of its legitimate revenue.

These issues need to be analysed in their proper perspective and are required to be dealt strictly under the law, he said and added that an effective checking of mis-declaration and under-invoicing would also give boost to the revenue collections.

Meanwhile, Member (Legal), Mumtaz Ahmed Sheikh apprised the conference about the current litigation position.

He informed that because of liquidation of almost entire pendency, the number of commissioners (appeals) has been reduced from 34 to seven. One more commissioner (appeal) is likely to be withdrawn from the appeals side in the coming days, he added.

In his presentation on harmonised commodity description and coding system (HS0-2007 version, Secretary (Customs), Mohammad Salim briefly outlined the objectives of the system. He said currently more than 98 per cent of world trade was in terms of the HS code.

He said that HS 2007 version will be launched in Pakistan on Jan 26 on the occasion of World Customs Day and a soft copy of the complete draft is being posted at the CBR’s website.

Other agenda items which came under discussion were disposal of un-cleared goods, including confiscated and tempered vehicles, issues pertaining to settlement of securities and bank guarantees, disposal of audit paras, disposal of pending adjudicating cases and disposal of cases filed under Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism.