ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s cross-border index trading rank jumped from 142nd to 111th by 31 positions due to the significantly improved implementation of several steps, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said on Tuesday.
The official announcement claimed that the FBR facilitated cross-border trading by focusing on three main areas: improving the incorporation of multiple agencies into the Web-Based One Customs (WeBOC) electronic system; reducing the number of documents needed for import/export clearances; and enhancing Pakistan Customs officials’ capacity to play a pro-active role in smoothly regulating border trade.
This achievement led Pakistan to be the sixth and first global reformer in South Asia to make it easy for national/international trade to do business.
It is important to note that, as per the detailed policy laid down by the government, border facilitation is among the top priority areas. Concerted efforts by Pakistan Customs led to impressive success in accordance with the terms of the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade Organization, thus complementing the growth of Pakistan in the border index.
Efficient customs controls have been followed by Pakistan Customs, so that compliant trade is fully encouraged, although less/non-compliant trade is diverted to comprehensive scrutiny. This policy worked well and, by increasing the percentage of clearances through the Green Channel, has gone a long way in reducing the dwelling time (at borders/ports) for imports/exports in Pakistan, FBR noted.
For example, the time needed for documentary export compliance has been reduced from 55 hours to 24 hours, and the time required for overall border compliance from 75 hours to 24 hours has also been reduced.
