Senate Body Meets To Finalise Recommendations On Finance Bill, 2022.

ISLAMABAD -- Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs met on Tuesday under the Chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla to consider and finalise the recommendations on Finance Bill, 2022, containing the Annual Budget Statement laid in the House on 10th June, 2022 here at the Parliament House.

The meeting commenced by examining the Customs Act, 1969 and various proposals forwarded by members of the upper House were taken into consideration. The committee was briefed by the Customs authorities on various insertions of new clauses definitions/ objectives. The Senate committee emphasised on making the law more clear and comprehensive enough to avoid the chances of misuse due to ambiguity. 'Enforcement of taxation laws should be through bills and not ordinances,' Chairman Finance Committee Senator Saleem Mandviwalla maintained.

The committee was briefed by the Customs authorities that the volume of trade is increasing and 74 government agencies aboard have come together through online regulatory system on one time basis submission of documents and termed it as a golden jump in terms of trade volume. It was also briefed that the insertion of new clause on 'unauthorised access' was introduced in order to align the Customs Act, 1969 with the Pakistan Single Window (PWS) Act. The committee recommended that the definition 'unauthorised access' is open ended and can make means to create offences, therefore, proposed clarity in the definition.

The committee was also briefed that the essential commodities like food items, fertilizers and other items of daily use are prone to smuggling out of the country through all international borders due to disparity in their prices in comparison with international market, smuggling of items may result in their shortages in domestic market causing exponential hardship to the common man of the country therefore proposed to define 'essential commodities'.

The committee was also briefed on the Import Policy Order 2020 which provides option of change in consignee name for frustrated cargo by Customs authorities while Customs Act, 1969 only provides option of re-export or re-shipping of frustrated cargo, therefore, the amendment has proposed to align Customs Act...