The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established a 3 member fact-finding committee to probe fraudulent clearances of imported goods worth Rs. 241 billion without meeting mandatory requirements of Pakistan Single Window (PSW) Financial instruments.
Sources told ProPakistani that FBR has established a three-member committee regarding issues related to the Financial Instruments of PSW.
The fact-finding committee comprises the Director General (Reforms & Automation) Islamabad, Shakeel Shah, the Chief Collector Appraisement (South) Karachi, Ashhad Jwad, and the Collector of Customs Appraisement (East) Karachi, Sanaullah Abro.
Customs high-ups formulate Terms of Reference including to ascertain whether the issues highlighted resulted in revenue loss for the government with remedial measures if required, to quantify misuse of Open Account in F1 functionality of WeBOC (keeping in view SOP policies and instructions regarding trade-related remittances and to suggest way forward for reconciliation with concerned Authorized Dealers).
Meanwhile, the ToRs also included:
- The role of PSW and DRA in the detection of system vulnerabilities and taking corrective action,
- Quantification of misuse of FT exemption through Chapter 99 mids-declarations with legal, technical, and administrative remedies,
- Legality of use of single FT for multiple GDs including quantification of misuse,
- The legality of use of FT covering declared Value rather than assessed Value with suggestions for improving Customs processes and SBP regulations,
- to ascertain whether changes in Web-Based One Customs (WeB0C) modules are being made by PSW unilaterally, and
- suggest suitable processes if needed and ascertain whether the issues highlighted were an outcome of integration design failure or deliberate attempts to circumvent Foreign Exchange regulations. In the case of the latter, fixation of responsibility.
The director of Reforms & Automation Karachi and CEO of Pakistan Single Window (PSW) to ensure the provision of all relevant data/documents to the committee in a timely fashion.
Sources said that the Directorate of Reforms & Automation Karachi has pointed out that some unscrupulous importers are involved in the clearance of imported goods without tagging the required Electronic import forms (PSW-F1) which were designed, developed, tested independently and were launched by PSW.
