Customs Department is making sincere efforts to provide maximum import and export related facilities and in this connection 44 different government departments are thrashing out viable solutions under National Single Window (NSW) programme, said Kamal Shehar Yar Advisor on Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
He was addressing a consultation session jointly organized by the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) on post Brexit scenario and new GSP Scheme of the UK for Pakistan.
Regarding NSW, he told that Pakistan Custom is the lead agency for implementation on it under the supervision of a high level Steering Committee. "The NSW is a quantum jump from the current silo and paper based management of Pakistan's external trade involving 44 different government departments responsible to regulate different aspects of imports, exports and transit trade", he told and added that the current system being inefficient and opaque creates complications for traders and economic operators leading to increased costs and delays as well as lax government's controls in carrying out cross border trade. Quoting World Bank's report on ease of doing business, the business community in Pakistan incurred more than 400 million USD extra costs as compared to the average cost for imports and exports in South Asian region, during the last one year, he told and added that competitiveness of Pakistan to facilitate trade, attract investment, get integrated into global value chains and be a regional hub for trade and transit is seriously undermined.
He further said that good news is that as the leading agency for NSW implementation, Pakistan Customs has not only made substantial progress on NSW implementation but is also successfully improving cross border trade facilitation. He informed that Pakistan's global ranking under cross border trade related indicator of World Bank's ease of doing business Survey for 2019 has improved by 29 positions due to efforts of Pakistan Customs.
He told that the indigenously developed Customs Single Window has already been implemented in the shape of WeBOC, which handles 90% of Pakistan's external trade providing 24/7 paperless processing services. He said that the upgraded version as WeBOC-Glo is presently being rolled out. He informed that Customs collects 48% of FBR's total revenue; however, its role is undergoing a paradigm shift from a mere revenue collection and enforcement agency towards the lead facilitator of cross border trade.
He said that as regards UK Pakistan will have to face new challenges after Brexit. "No doubt our export to EU will remain intact while UK has also assured to continue present system till the enforcement of new rules and regulations. He said that in 2018 our export to UK was 1.7 billion dollar which reduced to 1.6 billion dollar in 2019. He said that we must take all stake holders into the loop and evolve a progressive strategy to further enhance our export to UK in the new and changed environment.
Regarding RAX system he said that debate on it is premature as UK has yet to make strategic policy decisions. Hence, after the settlement of trade issues between UK and EU, we will be in a position to suggest measures favorable to Pakistan in export terms. He further told that being a part of EU we were bond to follow the 27 different international protocols but in case of UK now we must try to get maximum relief from UK. He also presented a documentary on GSP.
Earlier Rana Sikandar Azam Khan President FCCI said that UK is a major trade partner of Pakistan and we must carve out a proactive strategy in consultation with stake holders to further enhance our export. Regarding GSP and GSP Plus facility, he told that Pakistan had played a lead role in war against terrorism which inflicted around 100 billion dollar loss to our economy. He told that in order to compensate Pakistan, the EU instead of giving aid decided to offer duty free access to Pakistani exporters. He told that UK has assured to continue the facilities already enjoying by Pakistan under EU hence, our efforts should be to get more facilities to almost double our export.
A question answer session was held which was participated by Atif Shahbaz and Nadeem Bhatti etc. Allah Dad Tarar director TDAP Faisalabad and large number of importers and exporters were also present during this meeting.
Comments
Comments are closed.