FBR launches various modules of Export Facilitation Scheme

LAHORE: Director General (DG) Customs Automation and Reforms, Federal Board of Revenue, Syed Shakeel Shah launched various modules of Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) for facilitation of exporters and export of goods and services under fully automated and digitised environment.

He was speaking to the participants of a workshop organised by All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma). He was accompanied by Nayyar Shafique, Collector Customs, Sambarial, Farah Farooq, Additional Collector Customs, Dry Port, Lahore, Kareem Adil, Deputy Director Input Output Coefficient Organisation (IOCO) and other senior officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Chairman Aptma North Hamid Zaman welcomed the delegation along with Senior Vice Chairman Kamran Arshad and Secretary General Raza Baqir. The workshop was attended by a large number of Aptma member mills across the country.

Syed Shakeel Shah said the objective of a series of workshop is to interact with the industry representatives to know about the issues faced in utilisation of EFS and glitches being faced by them in their day to day working in order to improve the system. As many as three-fourth of the issues have been resolved and remaining would be worked out before the deadline, he assured the attendees of the workshop. Deployment of additional human resource and technical assistance would be well in place by the department as well, he added.

The DG said the FBR was proactive to eliminate any irritants on the way of exports and would go all way to resolve all sorts of issues relating to exports.

He said the module related to reconciliation of stock is at final stage would be made operational by the first week of April. Similarly, he said, the module related to indirect exports has also been developed and already deployed accordingly. He informed that now indirect exporters would not be required to seek approval from the Collector on consignment to consignment basis. He added that now such exporters would only feed the details in the system and would not require any formal approval.

The DG Customs said Pakistan Single Window portal has already been put in place and over 70 departments could be accessed through a single platform from all across the country. He urged the exporters to make maximum use of EFS and Pakistan Single Window and to suggest any improvements required to be made by them.

He appreciated Aptma for coordinating with customs in resolution of exporters problems and hoped such interaction would continue in the future.

Shakeel shah added that FBR has instructed all Collectorates and field formations to automate all processes and business working even if requisite persons are to be hired from the market.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023