EFS body assures APTMA of expeditious clearance of consignments

LAHORE: A high-powered Special Committee on Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) constituted by the Federal Board of Revenue including Mohsin Rafiq Chief Collector Exports, Naveed Elahi Chief Collector Customs Lahore and Salman Afzal Collector Customs Lahore visited the Aptma Lahore Office on Monday and assured exporters of expeditious clearance of export consignments, immediate payment of duty draw back claims and removal of all irritants in Export Facilitation Scheme.

Chairman Aptma Kamran Arshad, senior members including M. I. Khurram, Anjum Zafar, Haroon Ellahi, Muhammad Ali, a large number of textile exporters and Secretary General Raza Baqir welcomed them on their visit to the Aptma.

Mohsin Rafiq informed the Apma members that FBR has constituted a high powered team of senior officers to personally meet all exporters associations to identify system and procedural lacunas in EFS and consequently propose changes in the system, policy and procedure as and where required. He assured the Aptma of removing all irritants in EFS and other Customs procedures to facilitate exporters so as to relieve them from day to day hurdles and to spare them to focus solely and entirely on upsurging exports. He requested the Aptma members to bring all issues to the knowledge of the Committee for consideration and resolution of the problems thorough legislative and administrative measures.

Talking high of the importance of exports in general and textile industry in particular, Naveed Elahi said that no stone would be left unturned in facilitating textile industry for promotion of exports. He added that from now onwards all cases for renewal of EFS authorizations would be processed on line and disposed off within 24 hours of submission of requisite documents. He continued that the option of auto removal of authorisation on the basis of past export performance is under consideration and expected to be launched shortly.

The Customs officers highly appreciated the role of the Aptma on boosting exports and opined that most of Aptma demands being genuine would be addressed at the earliest.

Earlier Chairman Aptma Kamran Arshad, in his welcome address, pointed out abnormal delays taking place in renewal of existing EFS authorizations and fresh applications. He said cases for renewal of authorizations should not be referred to IOCO for redetermination of production capacity and Input Output ratios as law does not prescribe such exercise. He pointed out that the consignments of indirect exporters manufactured from raw materials imported under EFS are facing difficulties to be sold in the market as exporters are reluctant to buy such tax paid goods under EFS.

The chairman Aptma pointed out that audits are pending for long period and delay in release of PDCs/Guarantees costing financially to exporters and getting new quotas. Kamran pointed out that a large number of CRF are pending since long with Customs Automation department, which is hindering smooth functioning of the EFS. He said, deduction of taxes and duties is still being reflected at statutory rate instead of effective rates despites specific rulings by FBR, which is needed to be corrected.

The Aptma proposed that both IORs and Analysis certificates should be issued automatically on the basis of ratios determined in past IORs and FBR Textile Notes. Kamran lamented that despite fully automated EFS procedures, a parallel duplicate manual system is being run causing delays and adding to costs. Manual submission of documents should be stopped immediately, he stressed.

The chairman Aptma said Valuation Rulings are being unlawfully applied on EFS and exports, which are creating delays and irritants and required to be done away with.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026