Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association (PSMA) has expressed concern over terminating PaCCS and introducing WeBOC system of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) which is time consuming as compared to PaCCS. It would result in immense losses to the national exchequer.
Tariq Zakaria the Senior Vice-Chairman of Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association said that our members are facing immense problems following the abrupt induction of WeBOC at Qasim International Container Terminal (QICT) as a result of a public notice issued by FBR on September 20, informing all stakeholders to shift their consignment clearance, from September 23, from PaCCS to WeBOC at QICT for imports and exports purposes.
Zakaria pointed out that the trade volume has increased manifold due to speedy and corruption-free clearance in PaCCS. Statistics available in the revenue body would prove the fact that the volume of containerised cargo, both import and export, escalate from 0.7 million in 2005 to one million in 2010.
He said the new system is very complicated and creating tremendous problems for businessmen in clearance their consignments. This system is not only causing delaying the clearance process but also increases the cost factor due to demurrage and detention, which ultimately increases the cost of finished products.
Zakaria added that it is not the right time to change the system, considering proposed introduction of the Value-Added Tax (VAT) by the end of the fiscal year," on the other hand PRAL is not capable of handling such a new system, which would bring abrupt losses in the form of short collection of government revenue. He requested the Prime Minister to intervene in the issue.-PR