LANDI KOTAL: Exports to Afghanistan via Torkham border remained suspended for the second consecutive day on Tuesday as the agitated local custom clearing agents and traders held a protest demonstration against the computerised clearing of export goods.

Holding black flags and chanting slogans against the authorities, the protesters staged a sit-in on the main Torkham by-pass road. They criticised the Web-Based One Custom (WeBOC) system of clearance.

Torkham Custom Clearing Agents Association chairman Mirajuddin said on the occasion that WeBOC system was introduced only at the Torkham border which was a discrimination against the local traders and exporters.

He said that the new system had considerably slowed down the process of goods clearance at the border owing to lack of proper facilities and arrangements at the offices of customs in Torkham.

Mujeeb Shinwari, the general secretary of the association, said that imports from Afghanistan had already been badly affected by the WeBOC system as the vehicles loaded with imported items were made to wait for weeks for clearance owing to slow internet service and frequent disruption of power supply.

He said that for a speedy disposal of clearing procedure for both import and export goods, the offices of customs needed uninterrupted 12 MB internet service which at present was not available with them at Torkham.

Mr Shinwari said that workers at nearly 300 custom clearing agent offices were also not imparted necessary training regarding the new system. Their business was badly affected, he added.

However, Athar Naveed, the deputy collector of customs, when contacted, said that WeBOC was a computerised system and all entries regarding import and exports were directly fed to the computer linked with FBR.

He said that WeBOC was transparent and timesaving in comparison to the previous manual system of custom clearing. “It also curtails direct interaction between importer/exporter and the customs staff as all information were available on internet,” he said. He added that there was an in-built system of audit with no chance of misuse.

Mr Naveed refuted the arguments of clearing agents about not imparting training to their staff and slow internet service.

“We have duly imparted training to a number of clearing agents alongside installing computers with sufficient internet speed,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2018