Data sharing: Pakistan and Afghanistan form working group

Electronic sharing of information to check smuggling and promote trade.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan have constituted a technical working group that will work on a plan to exchange information regarding transit trade through an electronic data sharing system between the two countries, documents say.

According to the documents, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), in order to implement the plan, has nominated its chief of internal customs and director automation of Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) as focal persons and has sent a summary in this regard to the finance ministry.

In the summary, the FBR has asked the ministry to inform Afghan authorities about the appointment of focal persons by Pakistan, so that they could provide details of their focal persons too. A proposal is being studied that in the initial phase, the data sharing system should be installed at the Torkham border.

A senior FBR official told The Express Tribune that the FBR had made all preparations for launching the electronic data sharing system, which would help in checking smuggling under the garb of transit trade and promote legal trade between the two countries.

Following the start of the system, he said, cases of missing containers would come to an end and cross-border certificates for containers could also be verified. It would also help in assessing the record of import and export consignments, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2011.