KARACHI: The Collector of Model Customs Collectorate MCC Appraisement-West Muhammad Saleem has said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will appoint two officers of Grade-19 on the vacant positions of additional collectors in the Collectorate within 10 days.
Talking to Customs Today at his office, the Collector MCC Appraisement-West Muhammad Saleem said that the Collectorate has already written to the Board about the shortage of two officers of Grade-19 in the Collectorate and the Board has assured that it will provide the officers to the Collectorate as soon as possible.
The Collector Muhammad Saleem said that the core functions of the Collectorate are being suffered badly due to the shortage of two additional collectors and the work load compels the remaining three additional collectors to leave the office at around 12.00 am daily.
Responding to a query, Collector Muhammad Saleem said that the shortage not only of ADCs but the officials below Grade-17 is indeed affecting the performance of the Collectorate. However, the present strength of the officials and officers are working beyond their capacity in order to facilitate the trade.
Collector Muhammad Saleem further said that the court affairs are also suffered by the shortage of the sanctioned officers at ADC level, as those officers are also present in Sindh High Court (SHC) and Customs Tribunals to contest the Customs’ view point in those cases pending in the court of law.
“The MCC Appraisement-West needs more working strength as compare to MCC Appraisement-East and MCC Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, as the Collectorate is handling plenty of bulk and multiple accessories consignments”, he added.
“Average number of around 480 Goods Declarations (GD) are filed per day in the Collectorate from July-2014 till today”, he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that Customs Today in its recent publication has already reported that the Model Customs Collectorate MCC Appraisement-West is facing shortage of working strength at officiate level with the departure of Additional Collector (ADC-I) Dr Iftikhar Ahmed for training and transfer of ADC Farrukh Sajjad from the Collectorate.