FAISALABAD: Fearing ‘exact evaluation’ of containers, businessmen shied away from getting their shipments checked at the Faisalabad dry port where clearance activities have remained sluggish for almost two months.

Collector Customs Touseef Qureshi said two containers of old machinery had been detected because of misdeclaration. “Now the importers are not getting their containers cleared fearing exact evaluation,” he added.

Sources said that Customs Intelligence had detected containers which had been cleared without proper evaluation. Some two hundred containers are lying at the dry port.

“No restriction has been imposed on the clearance of old machinery containers,” Qureshi said, adding that containers of printers, photocopiers, herbal items and chemicals were being cleared by the Customs officials.

He added that under Section 82 of the Customs Act, notice had been served to importers who did not get their containers cleared within twenty days. “We can auction such containers,” he added.

Riaz Shahid, an importer told Dawn that intelligence officials were not accepting the evaluation of the customs collectorate. “Owing to this the importers are facing huge financial losses,” he added.

Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Rizwan Ashraf said a team of custom officials belonging to Lahore had created problems at the dry port. “Importers fear now evaluation of their items would be more than the routine.”

Dry Port Trust Chairman, Tauseef Bari said, “Intelligence officials are not ready to accept the evaluation of the collectorate. Joint examination of the containers would help importers and customs officials to clear the containers with agreed duty,” he said.

Published in Dawn ,July 14th, 2015

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