Message from Collector, Model Customs Collectorate of PaCCS, Karachi

The Customs department has the unique distinction of celebrating its day on a global level. International Customs Day provides an opportunity to Customs all over the world to share their knowledge and harmonise their practices with a view to protect the economic and security interests of not just their respective nations but of the world at large.
On this day, the Customs take out time to ponder over the challenges faced by them and deliberate upon ways to counter these challenges. They think upon the ways how to play their part in making the world a global village by facilitating the agenda of liberalising trade and facilitating the flow of goods and the passengers across borders and at the same time balancing the same with the competing objective of ensuring compliance and enforcement of national laws. The Customs Day provides the department the required momentum to work with zeal and vigour for the whole of the year.
WCO has selected "Knowledge - a catalyst for Customs excellence" as the central theme for this year's Customs Day. The knowledge is important for Customs department in many ways. Knowing national laws and rules empowers the customs not only to ensure enforcement and compliance but also makes them aware of the limits within which they can exercise their powers to provide the requisite ease and boost to the traders. The tariff barriers have been reduced globally to facilitate the world trade so that the consumers get the goods at the most competitive prices. However, this objective cannot be achieved unless the Customs are equipped with necessary knowledge whereby they are able to reduce business costs by enabling smooth flow of trade and expeditious clearance of goods without compromising the compliance of laws. The Customs also are required to get the necessary knowledge of changing business practices so that they can pre-empt the wrongdoers.
For protecting national economic interest and for ensuring trade facilitation, Pakistan Customs has come a long way in developing systems, which are in line with modern best practices and which employs all the new tools that technology has provided.