Pakistan Customs - A Resilient & Progressive Agency for Trade & Border Security, Syed Shoaib Raza, Secretary Customs Operations (FBR)

Changing our public sector governance system against a rapidly changing global landscape due to technological revolutions, industrial advancements, environmental degradations, pandemics leading to international and national health crises, and geopolitical contours is inevitable.

However, growth ensuring efficient service delivery, concerning these factors, may perhaps be a choice by a government agency. Pakistan Customs is the guardian of physical borders and economic frontiers contributing major revenue collection and also exporting goods into the world economies thereby attracting potential foreign reserves for the state.

Pakistan Customs as an agency is primarily responsible for facilitating international trade and regulating the moment of imported and exported goods.

Another significant role performed by Pakistan Customs is to safeguard consumers, businesses, environment, agriculture, and industry by thwarting any attempt to clear hazardous substances, weapons, ammunition, unreported currency, spurious medicines, narcotics & other contrabands, smuggled goods, improperly classified goods, unlicensed technology and goods contravening to intellectual property rights laws of the land.

Pakistan Customs, therefore, is the first line of defence against the unlawful entry of imported and exported goods. To face and meet these challenging responsibilities, officials of Pakistan Customs are working round the clock at forty-six (46) entry and exit points across the country.

Unlike the best international practice of simplifying and seamless border security operations in terms of ‘one face at the border’, here, we have multiple agencies working in silos and at times performing redundant responsibilities.

Even though the officials of Pakistan Customs are not equipped with adequate tools like weapons, technology gadgets, and scanning equipment, the annual performance of Pakistan Customs has been remarkable.

The following data explains the contribution of Pakistan Customs in terms of revenue collection as well as operations against smuggling:

Remarkably, Pakistan Customs has been able to contribute around 40-50 percent (%) of the Federal Board of Revenue’s annual revenue collection (net) in the last six (06) years. The year-wise progressive performance in curbing the menace of smuggling is evident in the following table:

Considering the current theme of 26th January, International Customs Day, “Customs Engaging Traditional and New Partners with Purpose”, it is high time torealize the need for a well-coordinated inter-agency collaboration and cooperation leading to secure and efficient services to the trade community, businesses, consumers, and international travellers at various entry-exit points of the country.With the rapidly changing global advancements in technology, the importance of well-coordinated inter-agency cooperation has become of tremendous importance.

Trade regulation and facilitation face perpetual challenges in the form of terrorism, bilateral &and multilateral trade agreements, smuggling of contraband, drug trafficking, natural disasters, pandemics, and various threats to national security.

A single agency, thus, cannot cope with these challenges and accordingly requires a comprehensive inter-agency collaboration strategy.

During the COVID pandemic, customs administrations around the world realized the need for interagency cooperation underlined by robust information sharing, application of risk management principles, and automation to keep supply chains intact, especially for essential commodities like foodstuff and medicine.

Pakistan Customs played an effective role in developing and implementing procedures that resumed cross-border trade while minimizing the threat to public health. The lessons learned during that process are now being broadly applied to the transformation of customs processes.

The role of Pakistan Customs, being the lead agency in trade facilitation, becomes more crucial in ensuring a safe, secure, and facilitated trade regime.

Traditionally, Pakistan Customs has witnessed a cordial relationship with other operational agencies from the public and private sectors at entry-exist points and customs stations.

Nevertheless, a lot more is required to be done in this realm. The improved legislation, innovative governance policies, and the use of advanced technology may lead to achieving the goal of sufficient revenue collection while ensuring the country’s economic stability and border security.

Pakistan Single Window is a vivid and practical demonstration of inter-agency collaboration. It provides a single platform for electronic clearances of imported and exported goodswith hassle-free speedy clearance leading to reduced cost and ease of doing business.

Under the existing trade structure, though a complex one, Pakistan Customsis collaborating with more than fifty (50) entities including financial institutions, Other Government Agencies (OGAs), and PSI companies apart from 75,000 plus registered users (importers, exporters & clearing agents).

Lastly, the functions and responsibilities of Customs administrations have become so critical that it is way beyond the capacity of the existing governance structure and resources allocated to it.

Pakistan Customs historically proved itself as a dynamic and resilient organization, initiating, welcoming, absorbing, and delivering institutional reform goals.

It has the potential to build the country by contributing a major chunk of national revenue as well as defending against national security threats provided given due legal mandate along with required operational resources. That may be the suitable way to respond to the ever-advanced global trading system posing every day a new challenge.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024