Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, Senior Vice President and Chairman of the Budget Advisory Council of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) in the pre-budget proposals prepared under his supervision has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to finalize the provisionally assessed cases within the time limit prescribed under section 81 of the Customs Act, 1969, failing which the provisional assessment be considered to stand finalized as per declaration of the importer and the bank guarantee / securities etc., be returned forth with.

The FPCCI SVP elaborated that in cases where the customs official is not satisfied with the correctness of the assessment of goods for reason that the goods require chemical or other test, the duty and taxes payable on such goods are determined provisionally and the goods are cleared subject to furnishing of bank guarantee etc., to meet likely differential between the final / correct determination of duty and taxes within six months of the date of provisional determination. However, generally the provisional assessment is not finalized within the stipulated time limit thus stucking-up the importers amount in security deposit for an indefinite period”, he added.