KARACHI, Jan 17: Member Customs, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Mohammad Ramzan Bhatti has said that the Section 25 of the new proposed International Trade Price (ITP) database scheme is fully in conformity with the WTO and GATT and that the Section is already vetted.

He said it was also not in contravention to the Transaction Value System, defined in WTO regime. The system, already consulted with other Chambers of the country and the FPCCI, is likely to be enforced within next 15 to 20 days. He was talking to the members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Saturday.

He urged the business community to opt for the new system as it provided better facilities. The system is fully optional and those who do not opt for it, would be dealt with the old system of evaluation of the import items, a press release of the KCCI says.

He assured maintaining fairness and transparency, saying that valuation committees are being formed to tackle the disputes on the ITPs and the assessment of the taxes.

Bhatti said that the disputes would be resolved within seven to 15 days and the list of ITPs would be revised accordingly. The revision would be made every week or a fortnight opposed to the previous system when revision was made only after one year.

Member Customs agreed that smuggling could not be checked fully. He said that new measures are being taken to check the smuggling, adding that Afghanistan authorities had assured to check the smuggling of the betel nuts in to the country from their borders. He said that 16 law enforcement agencies and other agencies are making efforts to check smuggling and Customs department has been given the task to coordinate with them.

On DTRE issue, he urged the exporters to adopt DTRE (duty and tax remission for exports) scheme, saying that the number of exporters interested to adopt DTRE had been increasing. The number of applications has increased from 253 to 1,004 during the last one year, he added.

Regarding revenues, he said revenue targets for first six months of this fiscal year have not only been achieved but have crossed by more than Rs6 billion, showing 15 per cent increase in sales tax collection and 12.5 increase in income tax collection. Besides, the number of seizures of the smuggled items also increased by 147 per cent this year as compared to last year.

Earlier, president KCCI, Siraj Kassam Teli urged the CBR to adopt the laws related to tax and customs duty in conformity with WTO regime and GATT Agreements to avoid difficulties in future.