International Customs Day 2022 Messages from Shaukat Tarin Federal Minister for Finance

TEXT: On the occasion of International Customs Day, 2022, I felicitate Pakistan Customs on joining the Customs administrations around the globe to celebrate this annual event. Customs plays a key role in differentiating between legitimate and illicit trade, while putting in place policies and procedures to make the flow of trade as speedy as possible for law-abiding companies. Making Customs processes faster and less cumbersome can boost economic activity, create jobs and stimulate growth. When Customs processes are complicated, it is the small businesses that lose out the most. Small and medium businesses have the greatest potential to fuel economic growth but they often lack the financial and human resources to comply with complicated border procedures. By making Customs processes transparent and less costly, Customs authorities can grant small business a level playing field, for the benefit of all.

The contribution of Pakistan Customs in anti-smuggling, trade facilitation, and revenue collection has remained outstanding especially in the recent years. Pakistan Customs’ WeBOC system is a completely paperless import, export and transit trade clearance system. Through the digitization of Customs Clearance procedures, Pakistan Customs has created a Big Data warehouse of trade transactions which can be effectively utilized by Federal Board of Revenue to improve its revenue collection and enforcement.

The International Customs Day’s slogan for this year is “scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem”. It emphasizes the need for development of data analytics and business intelligence skills to effectively utilize the trade and seizures data by Customs for trade facilitation and better enforcement. Pakistan Single Window is a flag ship project of trade facilitation and digital transformation in line with the slogan of International Customs Day.

Pakistan Customs can thus play a key role in government’s efforts to boost the economic activity in the country by upgrading its IT infrastructure to expedite the flow of trade and to reduce the cost of doing business. By exchange of data with other Customs administration, Pakistan Customs can effectively deal with the challenges of under invoicing and other fraudulent trade practices. Such electronic linkages can also boost the regional trade by providing express clearance facilities at the borders for our exports.

I once again congratulate Pakistan Customs for their excellent work and achievements and wish all the Customs officers continued success in their nation building endeavors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022