KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has empowered the Directorate General Transit Trade (DGTT) to track and monitor NATO/ISAF cargos along with other transit cargos.
According to SRO 609(I)/2020, the board in order to reorganize the DGTT extended its powers. The Directorate, which is based at Customs House, Karachi, will have its regional offices at Karachi, Gwadar, Quetta, Peshawar, Gilgit-Baltistan and Lahore.
Moreover, the DGTT shall be responsible for enforcement of all the international agreements, treaties, conventions, domestic laws, rules and procedures relating to transit trade with reference to cross border movement of bonded cargo and transshipment and shall also be responsible for enforcement of all laws, rules and procedures relating to international transshipment, through the respective Directorates and Collectorates.
The Directorate General shall also supervise functioning of the Directorates, furnish policy input to the board on matters relating to transit trade and transshipments and maintain liaison with all stakeholders.
The jurisdiction of the Directorate shall extend to all customs matters relating to transit, transshipments and allied functions in respect of the national territory of whole of Pakistan.
The Directorate shall have the supervision of tracking and monitoring across the national territory through its Central Control Room (CCR), established at Custom House, Karachi, in coordination with Regional Control Rooms (RCRs), established at respective Directorates of Transit Trade of transit cargo, POL Products exported to Afghanistan, US or NATO or ISAF cargo, transshipment cargo, safe transportation cargo, EPZ /SEZ/Free Zones cargo, manufacturing bonds exports cargo, export oriented units exports cargo, transportation of imported liquid bulk cargo for exclusive use of ISAF /NATO forces in Afghanistan besides administrating, budgeting and supervision of the Mobile Enforcement Units (MEUs) deployed at Transit Monitoring Response for Centers (TMRCs) across the country.
The DGTT shall also be responsible for sealing of cargo at Karachi sea ports and Port Qasim to the aforesaid transit cargos.
The SRO further stated that the jurisdiction of the DGTT shall extend to all customs matters relating to transit, transshipment and allied functions in respect of the Province of Sindh including Port of Karachi, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, Quaid-e-Azam International Airport, Karachi covering inter alia the following functions and Customs matters including processing, examination, scanning, clearance and allied matters relating to transit goods including bulk oil / POL in transit, transshipment goods, reconciliation of transit data regarding arrival, clearance and cross-border of transit cargo, association in development, up gradation and enhancement of other functions including recovery of any adjudged amounts, licensing of transport operators / bonded carrier whose business address falls within the territorial jurisdiction of the Directorate, personnel management, handling of legal matters arising in consequence of processing, movement and clearance of transit and transshipment cargo, coordination with all stakeholders for operational purposes and business process re-engineering, transit trade and transshipment facilitation and liaison with stakeholders through Transit Trade Facilitation Portal for redressal of complaints, handling of TIR operations at Karachi and any other function assigned by the Federal Board of Revenue from time to time.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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