KARACHI: In order to facilitate international trade, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has dispensed with the requirement of submission of original shipping/transport documents to the authorised dealers by the importers for payments against imports made on open account basis. Earlier, importers were, inter alia, required to present original shipping/transport documents to authorised dealers for effecting the related import payments.
According to a statement, the initiative has been taken in the wake of requests from different stakeholders, including various chambers of commerce, importers, banks, etc., as international trade is witnessing shift from physical transfer of original transport documents to electronically transmitted transport documents to save cost and time involved in physical transfer of such documents from foreign seller to the importer.
“Furthermore, implementation of Electronic Import Form (EIF) by the SBP and the Pakistan Customs has strengthened the monitoring of imports into Pakistan and related payments, thus, the possibility of multiple payments against single import consignment through different banks stands eliminated.”
Published in Daily Times, September 16th 2017.
