ISLAMABAD (June 10 2005): The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has reduced the time period of record maintenance from 5 to 3 years, facilitating both exporters and importers from July 1, 2005.
Official sources told Business Recorder on Thursday that now importers/exporters are no more required to maintain record for 5 years for audit/investigation purposes. The businessmen have been allowed to destroy the record after a period of three years.
Officials said that the importance of maintenance of proper records can't be over emphasised. It is being proposed to prescribe proper procedure for maintenance of records so that there is no ambiguity in it. Traders are required to maintain record regarding their imports and exports transactions for a period of three years, they added.
The CBR will soon notify the new procedure regarding maintenance of record.
On the other hand, the penalty for the non-production of record has been enhanced from Rs 100,000 to Rs 500,000 to ensure better compliance by the importers, etc. However, it is not necessary that customs will levy Rs 500,000 fine in every case as the department could impose the penalty ranging between Rs 100,000 and Rs 500,000.
