KARACHI: The Collectorate of Customs Appraisement (CCA), Port Qasim has declared the submission of signed documents mandatory for initiating the clearance process.

According to the circular issued on the other day, the collectorate has observed with concern that certain importers and/or their clearing agents used to submit paper documents or upload written justifications in PDF format in the WeBOC system without signatures or stating signing person's names or designations they hold in the company. This makes it difficult to ascertain whether the same has been submitted by an authorized person or representative of the clearing agent/importer or otherwise.

It said that such dubious documents required additional verifications which delay the clearance process thereby increasing the cost of doing business for the other importers as well as create unnecessary workload for the customs processing officers.

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Therefore, the Collectorate has directed all concerned to submit documents signed by the authorized person, stating the complete name and CNIC number, below the signature. Moreover, the designation of the signing authority, ie, whether owner, director, manager, etc of the importer or clearing agent, should be clearly mentioned on the submitted documents and in case the document is signed by someone other than the importer/authorized clearing agent, the original authority letter from the importer, containing the above-mentioned details on both the authority letter and the submitted document must be submitted along with the said document.

Furthermore, in case the submitted documents, paper or in PDF soft form, do not fulfill the above conditions, the same shall not be accepted as a bona fide document and relevant consignment/issue would be processed as if no response has been received from the importer/clearing agent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021