NBR brings changes to curb delays, complexity

The National Board of Revenue has brought changes in the procedure and performance of various customs related bonds in order to avoid excessive delay in document disposal, reduce complexity and bring dynamism in various service delivery activities.

NBR’s customs department issued two directives in this regard on November 17, which limits processing time of exporters’ applications regarding bond related services from 2 to 17 working days.

According to NBR officials, there will be no scope for delays in providing 25 types of customs bond-related services from now on.

One of these orders said any application of duty free facility will remain in a particular branch for a maximum of one day. Apart from this, an assistant revenue officer will get three days, revenue officer one day, assistant commissioner or deputy commissioner two days, joint commissioner or additional commissioner two days to process an application.

In short, the officials will have a maximum of nine working days to dispose of the related files.

Raw materials and accessories – imported under duty-free facility – are kept in a specific warehouse of the factory premises which is designated by the customs department. This is known as a bonded warehouse or bond facility.

To avail duty free facility, exporters have to apply for a license at the NBR’s Customs Bond Commissionerate.

For disposal of such an application, applicants will have to approach different departments and officials, including a branch of the customs office concerned, assistant revenue officer (ARO), revenue officer (RO), assistant commissioner or deputy commissioner (AC/DC) and joint commissioner or additional commissioner (JC/ADC).

The time limit for resolving an application for issuance of bond license for any Export Processing Zone (EPZ) will be nine days, the order says.

Bond licence renewal applications submitted by the garment industry will have to be settled within six days, the extension of bond facility application within nine days, ownership change application has to be processed by nine days, application for addition or subtraction of raw material or export products within six days, and an application for permanent inter-bond transfer has to be completed within 13 days.

Also, the application for waiver of duty on raw materials damaged or destroyed due to natural calamities has to be disposed of within 17 working days.