ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Customs, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Afghan Customs Department on Tuesday signed a customs mutual assistance agreement for the establishment of an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between the two countries.
The agreement was signed by FBR, Member Customs Operation Syed Muhammad Tariq Huda, and Afghan Customs Department Director General (DG) Khalillulah Saleh Zad on behalf of their respective organisations. Minister of the Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan, Nisar Ahmad Ghoriyani and Chairman FBR Muhammad Javed Ghani were present on the occasion.
A large gathering of business persons from both countries was also in attendance.
Speaking on the occasion, Tariq Huda highlighted the strategic and operational benefits of the agreement, saying that it would ensure reduced clearance times and optimum trade facilitation for import, export and transit cargo as well as control smuggling.
“The agreement would also ensure reduced risk of evasion of duties and taxes,” he added.
Improvement of clearances and service delivery at the Border Crossing Points (BCPs) will also be another benefit of the Agreement.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman FBR Muhammad Javed Ghani informed that the agreement would allow the customs administrations of both countries to exchange information regarding transit and bilateral trade electronically in accordance with the mutually agreed data elements and mechanism which includes the exchange of information before the arrival of goods and vehicles.
Later, the FBR chairman referred to the recent efforts put in by Pakistan Customs to remove congestion at Torkham Border caused by stocking up of containers.
The trade community expressed great satisfaction with the committed efforts to bring the containers’ clearance to normal at bordering stations, particularly Torkham.
