Baggage Rules amended: passengers arriving, departing required to file customs declaration

Baggage Rules amended: passengers arriving, departing required to file customs declaration

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday made mandatory the requirement of filing customs declaration for passengers, in case of accompanied baggage, at the time of arrival or departure.

The FBR issued SRO 689 (I)/2019 to implement the amendments in Baggage Rules, 2006, which have been previously published through SRO 653(I)/2019 dated June 22, 2019.

In the Baggage Rules, 2006 a new Rule 7A has been inserted, which stated: “In case of accompanied baggage, the passengers at the time of arrival or departure, shall file a customs declaration form as set out I n Appendix-C.”

Under the Appendix-C, a passenger is required to provide particulars, included: name, gender, date of birth, passport number, nationality, country coming from/going to, country going to (if in transit), names of countries visited during last seven days, purpose of visit (persona, official, business, tourism), contact person/sponsor contact number in Pakistan and address in Pakistan.

The passenger is required to make following declaration:

Are you carrying any of the following goods?
a. Prohibited / restricted goods such as Narcotics, Psychotropic substance, firearms, weapons, satellite phones etc?

b. Gold jewelry, precious / semi-precious stones

c. Foreign currency in US $ or equivalent

d. Any other declaration to be made to Customs

Passengers have been advised to inform to customs officers at the Red Channel if any of the above answer is in ‘Yes’.