Pakistan Customs has enhanced its operations at Torkham border to facilitate trade and expedite clearance of baggage and cargoes. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Establishment Matters, Arbab Shahzad had convened meetings to address the matter on war-footing. Accordingly, Dr Jawwad Uwais Agha, Member Customs (Operations), Federal Board of Revenue, Islamabad, has deployed a large number of customs personnel to cater to the urgent requirements at Torkham border.
In compliance with the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Pakistan Customs has deputed additional staff at Torkham border aimed to facilitate trade and expedite clearance of baggage and cargoes.
While elaborating FBR efforts, chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi said the exports and transit to Afghanistan bear much promise for expansion of the customs operations at Torkham border and the Customs department being the premier agency has put its teams in place to brace up this situation.
The FBR chairman further informed that around 12,000 passengers traverse across this border station daily and their facilitation and baggage clearance is an area being addressed by Customs, besides around 300 empty containers (after offloading their cargo in Afghanistan) are also sent back daily from the Afghan side.
To implement the directions, 54 customs personnel consisting of superintendents, appraisers, inspectors and other supporting staff have been withdrawn from other formations and deployed at Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement Peshawar for Torkham.
Although the customs formations are badly short in strength and request for creation of different posts is under consideration of Finance Department, yet in order to give compliance to the directions of the PM's adviser on establishment and the urgent need for expansion of the operations at Torkham, the Member (Customs Operations) has made all-out efforts and withdrawn customs staff for deployment in order to facilitate and expand the trade at Torkham.
The customs clearance will be managed through three shifts. The day and night customs clearance operations will greatly facilitate the import and export at Torkham leading to significant reduction of transport charges and fast movement of trade.
As a prelude, the customs operations have already been expanded starting from 7am till 9pm for the past two months. The senior Customs Operations hierarchy has paid visits to Torkham to ensure launch of these operations in the coming days. The connecting requirements for equipment and support apparatus are being placed on ground through the cooperation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
The said round the clock operations are going to be started shortly for which formal ceremony will also take place in the presence of the federal government high-ups and FBR administration.
Comments
Comments are closed.