The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has revised structure of Licensing Committee of senior customs officials for grant of licence to the company to track and monitor various types of cargoes covering transit cargo, export of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) products to Afghanistan and trans-shipment cargo by a company providing GSM or GPRS or satellite communication for monitoring and tracking, on a real-time basis, of containers and vehicles carrying cargoes throughout the journey.
The FBR has proposed amendments in the Tracking and Monitoring of Cargo Rules, 2012, through a notification issued here on Thursday.
According to the revised rules, Licensing Committee means a committee comprising director general of transit trade (chairman); director transit trade (HQs) Karachi; director transit trade (Peshawar), director transit trade (Quetta); director Reforms and Automation (Karachi); collectors of Customs (Enforcement and Compliance Karachi), (Appraisement and Facilitation, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, Karachi), (Appraisement and Facilitation-East, Karachi), (Appraisement and Facilitation-West), Karachi, and director of Intelligence and Investigation, FBR, Karachi or any other authority designated by the board.
Director Transit Trade (HQs), Karachi shall be the convener of the Licensing Committee and its headquarters shall be located in Directorate General of Transit Trade, Karachi.
The director Transit Trade (HQs), Karachi shall provide secretarial and other allied support required for functioning or the Licensing Committee.
Any function enumerated in these rules including mounting and un-mouming of tracking devices in the designated areas, whereof, the staff of the Directorate General of Transit Trade is not posted, shall be performed by the staff of the respective Enforcement and Compliance or Composite Customs Collectorate of jurisdiction, the FBR added.
Tracking and Monitoring of Cargo Rules, 2012, were issued for the grant of a licence to the company to be engaged in tracking and monitoring of various types of cargo throughout the journey from the port of entry to the port of exit or from one warehouse to another, on a real time basis.
The licensee shall be required to provide the services including monitoring and tracking of vehicles and containers carrying the cargo mentioned in these rules from customs port of entry to customs port of exit on a real-time basis; maintaining en-route integrity of cargo by preventing pilferage or theft or losses; access to relevant information through web-portal to all stakeholders as allowed under these rules or by the customs; flexible solution to cater for any future requirements of tracking under multi-modal and inter-modal transportation environment, e.g. with other stakeholders such as Pakistan Railways etc; monitoring timely deliveries and reporting on transport efficiencies; managing the system under proper maintenance to ensure smooth operation of the system, compatible with customs procedures and operations so as to ensure running of the system by customs also; vehicle immobilisation and securing as and when required, and mandatory in case of geo-fencing violation, pilferage attempts, unauthorised or unusual stoppage and reporting application capable of generating different reports.
The rules said that the licensee shall also provide extension of tracking or monitoring to trans-border, if required; customised land marking; customised analytical reports; scalable solution to handle additional units and single interface for monitoring of containers and authorised carriers.
As per rules, no company shall carry out tracking and monitoring of cargo unless it has obtained a licence under these rules.
No licensee under these rules shall establish, maintain or operate any telecommunication system or provide any telecommunication service, which is not authorised under the licence issued to it by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The rules have also elaborated the functioning of Licensing Committee.
The rules have also explained the establishment of Central Control Room.
The licensee shall design, furnish and establish a Central Control Room (CCR) in the Custom House, Karachi or in any other control room designated by the board.
The CCR shall be equipped with hardware, software, plasmas, LCDs, communication and other allied equipment for viewing, analysing the movements of goods and vehicles and responding in cases of alerts.
The CCR shall have necessary servers and data storage facilities to store and manage data bases for the vehicles monitored daily, with report printing capabilities for each trip.
The operators at the CCR shall be able to transfer the map or any section of it to any monitor or licensee connected to the system based on pre-assigned priorities.
The rules have also explained the establishment of Regional Control Rooms.
The licensee shall design, furnish and establish Regional Control Rooms (RCR) in various Collectorates of Customs or in any other places designated by the board.
The RCRs shall be connected with the CCR and equipped with the requisite infrastructure for monitoring the movement of goods and vehicles, and for responding in cases of alerts.
The rules said the tracking device provided or used by the licensee shall have the features, including that it should be small, of compact size, shock-proof, temperature and fire resistant and with water proof casing; it should be reusable, easy to install or mount and remove or un-mount, with high storage capacity and it should operate in specified modes.
The project director shall get the tracking and monitoring devices as well as the tracking system installed in vehicles, tested before use.
On satisfaction, the project director shall allow the use of tracking and monitoring devices and installation of tracking system in the vehicles.
Same procedure shall be followed in case a new device is introduced.
The project director may require replacement of device or tracking system, if he is of the view that the equipment is not giving satisfactory results.
For mounting of tracking device, the licensee shall establish designated areas at the point of entry, which would be in proximity of PCCSS office of MCC Preventive, Karachi and shall be responsible for active and close liaison with it.
The licensee shall make arrangements in the designated areas for mounting and un-mounting of tracking or monitoring device.
Once the GD-TP or GD-AT is out of charge by the relevant Customs Collectorate, the carrier shall take delivery of the goods on the registered vehicle and bring it to the tracker installation area, where the designated tracker company shall install the tracking device on the container.
The tracking device shall be synchronised with a fixed tracking device already installed on the vehicle and once both the tracking devices are synchronised the staff of the tracking company shall activate the data on the relevant computer software to be accessed by customs scanning staff, PCCSS sealing focal point and exit gate of the terminal operator as well as customs focal points of entry and exit, and CCR.
The licensee upon being approached by the carrier or transport operator shall affix the tracking device and make it synchronised with the tracking device fixed on the prime mover or vehicle and upload the data in the system and activate the tracking system.
The whole procedure shall be completed within 15 minutes.
As per functioning of Mobile Enforcement Units (MEUs), the rules said to check and verify any of the eventualities en route, the customs squad of the MEUs shall patrol the designated routes on which transit and transshipment cargo is plying.
The mobile squad may check a vehicle in case it receives authentic information or has reasons to believe that the goods have been pilfered or lost.
The squad will be required to report the eventuality to the nearest RCR.
The mobile squad shall make endorsement of the action taken with regard to the cargo, the transport unit etc, by feeding the information in the system.
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