Govt releases Rs35mn for ITTMS to ease trade processing

ISLAMABAD: The government has so far released Rs35 million for the Integrated Transit Trade Management System (ITTMS) project under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the current fiscal year (2017-18) to improve processing of trade at the border crossing points in Torkham and Chaman.

In total Rs255.375 million have been earmarked for the project under PSDP 2017-18, which included Rs100 as foreign exchange component.

The ITTMS is being executed under Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Regional Improving Border Service Project, official sources said.

The total cost of ITTMS project has been estimated at Rs 31,626.2 million with foreign exchange component of Rs 26,049 million, while the remaining amount of Rs 5,576.5 million would be provided by the government.

ADB considers it as an important project due to its significance in the context of the corridor for trade envisaged under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), they added.

The project is based on the vision of the government to develop Pakistan as an economic corridor and enhance regional connectivity; the sources said adding that once completed, it would result in significant reduction in processing times at the border crossing points in Torkham and Chaman.

Meanwhile, the government also released Rs40 million for the establishment of Inland Revenue Offices in Pakistan, for which an amount of Rs148 million have been earmarked in the current Federal PSDP.

As many as Rs15 million have been released for project for security improvement in Karachi Port and Port Qasim for installation of three fixed and one Mobile Scanner with Rs5 million assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The government also released an amount of Rs3 million for construction of Regional Tax Office at Dere Ismail Khan for which an amount of Rs10 million have been earmarked for the current year.

In total, an amount of Rs93 million have been released for various ongoing and news projects of Revenue Division out of its total allocations of Rs790.100.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government has so far released Rs169.723 billion for various projects of ministries and divisions out of the total allocations of Rs1001 billion under PSDP 2017-18.