FAISALABAD, Aug 29: The federal government is establishing an export processing center (EPC) at the Faisalabad Collectorate of Customs and considering enhancing the registration as well as renewal period of bonded warehouses from one to three years, said Faisalabad Customs Collector Khawar Fareed Manika.

Addressing local textile exporters here on Friday, he said the EPC would facilitate exporters and importers for one-window clearance of their goods and this process would be completed within two to three hours.

There would be 20 rooms at the EPC to process all customs related documents expeditiously, he added.

Manika said that exports from Faisalabad earned around $3 billion per annum but only one-third of it was routed through the Faisalabad Collectorate.

He said a proposal was under consideration to clear export consignments of leading export houses without detailed examination and processing of their papers would be undertaken after the dispatch of consignment to Karachi.

This method would reduce the clearance time and support exporters to bring their maximum export consignments at Faisalabad for their clearance instead of sending them to Karachi, he said.

About flawed registration of harmonised code (HC), Manika said training courses would be organised for customs clearing agents and staff members of exporters.

Besides this, he said, a system was also being introduced to receive these documents through e-filing to minimise the chances of referring wrong HC.

Exporters also suggested various proposals to make the systems at Faisalabad Collectorate more effective.

GUNNED DOWN: Three people were gunned down and two others, including a woman, sustained injuries in different incidents in this district on Friday.