ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Customs on Friday said it will put in place a National Targeting Centre (NTC) to identify and profile risky goods and individuals to improve enforcement as part of the coordinated border management.

As part of the proposed reforms, a NTC central control room will be established with support from regional centres.

Official document shows the automated module for the NTC will process the data from various sources to assist Pakistan Customs and other law enforcement agencies in profiling, identifying, targeting risky goods, persons and conveyances for establishing effective control and subsequent investigation.

The NTC system will be linked with Immigration, NADRA, Advance Passenger Information System, Currency Declaration System, National Customs Enforcement Network, Facial Recognition System, Cargo Targeting System, Inland Anti-Smuggling monitoring mechanism and other relevant enforcement system and data bases.

According to reforms, the NTC will adopt a two-pronged strategy for processing of information received from different data sources — generating alerts for the operational units and trend analysis for a robust risk management system.

The system will develop and maintain profiles of suspected individuals and transport units to identify the potentially-risky persons and conveyances. It will also provide for real-time remote performance monitoring along with profiling using facial recognition system installed at all entry and exit points and linked with the central control room.

As part of another reform, a smart examination system will be development in WeBOC to streamline and expedite the examination process of import and export consignments.

The Smart Examination system will have a priority grounding of consignments comprising of single item and 24/7 examination operations at ports and airports. The system will be able to create shifts of Customs examiners to support 24/7 operations.

The facility will be provided for on the spot feeding of examination report and uploading images to complete the examination process without any delay.

A comprehensive state warehouse management system will be developed for efficient management of customs state warehouses and proper accounting of seized, confiscated, and temporarily stored goods.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020