950807

Duty drawback claims

PCMEA suggests

simplified procedure

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMEA) has suggested adoption of a simplified procedure to facilitate exporters in obtaining duty drawback payments through commercial banks within seven days from the receipt of export proceeds.

Imran Malik, acting chairman, PCMEA, in a communication to the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has suggested that a meeting be held to which representatives of FPCCI, PBC, SBP, EPB, Customs, CBR and exporters be invited to finalize the procedure.

But Mir Fuad, Collector of Customs, exports has regretted that although it was agreed at meetings that concerned exporters associations would depute two persons to help customs staff to retrieve original paid cliams, so far only two associations have deputed their nominees and even those are not attending to the work regularly.

As such, he said, no tangible process in this regard has been made. he has, therefore, asked them to depute their nominees for assistance in the retrieval of the record so as to increase the pace of disposal of pending supplementary claims. However, according to the PCMEA, exporters all over Pakistan have been complaining for a very long time about the extraordinary delay by Customs authorities in the payment of duty drawback. They have been constantly demanding payment of duty drawback through commercial banks within seven days of the submission of claims and the enforcement of a delay-proof drawback payment mechanism.

"We understand that the Pakistan Banking Council are drafting a procedure for the payment of duty drawback through commercial banks, we have no objection in principle if the Customs Department continues to process the duty drawback claims provided the system evolved ensures expeditious processing of claims," he said.

In order to achieve this objective, PCMEA has recommended the following for incorporation in the procedure of payment of duty drawback claims through commercial banks:

Processing of claims should start immediately after submission of Bill of Entry and Customs clearance of export shipments upon submission of the required claim documents by the exporter or his agent.

Processing may be done at the port of exit or at the Customs Valuation Department but it should be completed within seven days from the submission of claim documents as per (1) above.

Immediately after completion of processing of the claims as per (1) & (2) above the Customs authorities should issue payment authorisation directly addressed to the branch of the bank which certified Form "E" for the relevant export shipment.

Upon receipt of payment from the foreign buyer the exporter should approach the branch which handled the particular export transaction, for payment of the duty drawback. The bank branch should collect the amount from SBP/NBP for credit of exporter's account against submission of Customs payment authorisation and BCA.

The above procedure would ensure timely payment of duty drawback claims and eliminate unnecessary delays provided that it is ensured that sufficient funds are always available with SBP/NBP so that payments are made without delay.

In order to simplify the procedure and to reduce multiplicity of documents PCMEA has recommended that Bill of Entry/Shipping Bill may be redesigned so that calculation of duty drawback and its basic authorisaiton may be down on this single document.