ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: The government has so far failed to finalize trade data for the month of January 2005 because of a disagreement between the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) over a mutually agreeable mechanism for the compilation trade figures.

Sources told Dawn that for the second month in a row, the data finalization had gone beyond the middle of the month, which used to be released in the first week of every month for more than last 10 years.

According to the sources, the statistics division had asked the CBR to compile the trade figures after verifying from various sources before they were officially released.

The FBS was of the opinion that customs officials should provide them details of goods declaration forms submitted by exporters and importers at customs ports, which included information regarding the quantity of exports and imports of goods, destination, rate of duty, etc.

The sources said the FBS had questioned the authenticity of information provided to them through CDs, which it believed should be duly verified by the CBR. "Both the parties are passing responsibility to each other and see some behind the scene motives in proposing different sets of procedures for the finalization of import and export data."

According to the sources, the customs officials had no proper mechanism for the compilation of trade figures at ports, particularly exports related data. "Exportable products did not attract any customs duty in Pakistan, therefore no proper mechanism was adopted during the past years at collectorates."

The customs officials only keep records of imported goods that involved duties and taxes. Therefore, they have compiled the import data for January 2005.

The sources revealed that there was no legal provision in the Pakistan Customs Act 1969 to bind any exporter to give full details of their exportable products before shipment. Due to this lack of provision in the law, the exporters are not legally bound even to file the details of their consignments.

According to the sources, the customs officials were of the opinion that due to automation in most of the collectorates, they would provide trade related information available with them to the statistics division on CDs instead of giving files of goods declaration forms.

The controversy erupted in December 2004 when the import figures reported by the CBR and the FBS were at variance. The FBS later revised their statistics at the direction of the prime minister in accordance with the figures compiled by the CBR.