PRAL, PSW blamed for big import data gap

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce on Monday that two entities under the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) — Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) and Pakistan Single Window (PSW) — were responsible for a discrepancy of USD11 billion in import data reported last year.

Briefing the committee, officials from the Ministry of Commerce said the discrepancy arose due to inconsistencies in import data reported by PBS, PRAL, and PSW, and that the matter requires formal clarification.

The ministry emphasised that the issue is statistical and procedural in nature, rather than financial. It noted the importance of distinguishing between trade data compiled for statistical purposes and actual financial inflows and outflows recorded by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

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“The discrepancy does not affect Pakistan’s balance of payments position, as the SBP records actual foreign exchange transactions routed through the formal banking system,” the Ministry stated adding that “the BoP is based on verifiable inflows and outflows, rather than declaratory or customs-assessed data. Therefore, the $11 billion discrepancy does not impact the stability of the external account.”

PBS officials informed the committee that for the past two years, data was being collected from PRAL for trade statistics. However, this data did not include figures related to the Export Finance Scheme (EFS), leading to the discrepancy. They added that since switching to data from PSW, no such discrepancies have occurred.

“This means the issue lies between two FBR entities,” observed the Chairman of the Standing Committee — a viewpoint that was endorsed by officials from both the Commerce Ministry and PBS.

Transaction-wise import data is recorded in the WEBOC system via electronic goods declarations submitted by importers. PRAL generates import data files based on these declarations using predefined queries that filter relevant information. These files are shared regularly with various ministries and departments as required.

One key data point is the “Goods Declaration Type” column, which indicates whether goods are imported under schemes such as the Export Facilitation Scheme or for home consumption. The Committee directed PBS to coordinate with PRAL and PSW to ensure such discrepancies do not occur in the future.

The Committee was informed that this contradiction arose due to differences in data from two FBR institutions as State Bank has data based on bank transactions,”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025