THE new system of Customs clearance has been launched by the government with emphasis on no interaction between officials and importers. Faceless Customs Assessment (FCA) aims at plugging corruption in the clearance of imported goods, which takes place owing to a nexus between appraisement staff and importers.

Under FCA, goods declaration will open in front of any random appraising officer without disclosing the name of the supplier and the importer. It will only show the details of the goods. Thus, the appraiser will not be able to contact the importer for any transaction.

With tacit arrangement of all the rele-vant stakeholders, goods declared are now filed with past evidence, thus clearly informing the appraiser to which importer the goods declared belong to, and how it is to be processed to everyone’s benefit.

Official guidelines must be issued immediately against sharing any past evidence at any stage across the process.

Zafar Hasan Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2025