Life of Customs officers
 

Seniors, please draw the detailed picture of duties and privelages of Custom officers. What are the chances of promtion to grade 21/22. What are the ranks after assistant collector?

After the creation of IRS, the chances of customs officers making it to grade 21/22 are 1 in 100.

Pakistan Customs is the guardian of Pakistan's borders against movement of contra band goods and is a facilitator of bona fide trade. It provides a major source of revenue to the Government of Pakistan in the form of taxes levied on the goods traded across the borders. It also helps to protect the domestic industry, discourage consumptions of luxury goods and stimulate development in the under -developed areas. Customs and Regulatory duties amount up to 15% of the total receipts collected by the Federal Board of Revenue.

Pakistan Customs is manned by officers from the Pakistan Customs Service (PCS) which has been one of the premier occupational group amongst Pakistan's civil services. Previously known as the “Customs & Excise group”, it was re-classified as Pakistan Customs Service in November 2010 when the responsibility of collection of income tax, sales tax and federal excise was devolved to the newly created Inland Revenue Service. This has given PCS officers an opportunity to focus on their core function of acting as guardian of the nation’s borders against illegitimate trade and regulating bona fide trade. While the role of Pakistan Customs Service has been greatly diminished because of the loss of sales tax and federal excise to IRS, the move has allowed Pakistan Customs Service to become a lean and mean service with enhanced focus on border control.

The statutory framework of Pakistan Customs consists of the Customs Act 1969, Customs Rules 2001 and various SROs and Notifications issued by FBR from time to time. The structure of the Pakistan Customs department allows officers directly recruited through the Competitive Examinations enormous powers and prestige. Officers are usually given vehicles and additional money is paid to staff and officers alike from the Common Pool Fund of Customs. Some of the induction to BS-17 is from the non-gazetted ranks, which is in accordance with a pre-determined quota.

Specialised Training of Pakistan Customs Service takes place at Karachi. Classes take place at the Old Customs House located at Karachi Port Trust whereas officers reside at the Customs Officers’ Mess located at NIPA Chowrangi, Karachi.

Officers from Pakistan Customs are eligible for all scholarships and training/capacity building courses offered by the FBR besides those offered through Economic Affairs Division.

The normal career progression of a Customs Officer is as follows:

Assistant Collector -> Deputy Collector -> Additional Collector -> Collector -> Chief Collector -> Member Customs -> Chairman

The top level hierarchy in Customs include the Chief Collector North and the Chief Collector South, both of whom report to Member Customs who is responsible for running the overall operations of Customs and himself reports to the Chairman FBR. Field formations also receive policy instructions from Member, indirect tax policy.

The officers of Pakistan Customs Service are highly sought after by other government departments. In particular, they are keenly posted in organisations like National Tariff Commission, Intellectual Property Organisation and as Commercial Counsellors overseas.

Customs Collectorates exist at Karachi, Lahore, Sambrial, Quetta, Hyderabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Besides them, Customs offices also exist at all international exit and entry points besides Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Gwadar.


The anti-smuggling powers delegated previously by Pakistan Customs to Pakistan Rangers and FC were withdrawn in view of expansion of PCS in border regions but have been temporarily returned to Pakistan Rangers and FC due to operational difficulties. However, it appears clear that in the future, Pakistan Customs is planning to have an enhanced anti-smuggling role in border areas which will allow it to once again play an important role in national development. The shift in the role of Pakistan Customs from a revenue-collection agency to a border control agency with substantial responsibility in safe-guarding country’s trade policies is what appears to be the future of Pakistan Customs Service.

Customs group officer live the life of a real king. I met a Grade-18 officer of Customs group and while I met him at his new home, you will not believe that decorators from France were decorating his house. A wealthy person of Pakistan can't think of getting his house decorated from foreign interior designers. Millions will only be the air fare and boarding lodging of the team come from France.

I have seen level the of corruption in PAAS and IRS because few officers of these groups are my relatives. Their wealth is also in countless number. Corrupt people in Customs, PAAS and IRS are living like kings. Our family friend in PAAS (Railway Accounts) who was literally poor not even financially moderate currently doing business in Australia on a large scale and his brother is handling the business. He has many banglows and other property in Pakistan in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Hope it answer your question about the life of officers in Customs and other groups. Mr. Hafeez Shaikh is rite to say that FBR corruption is in billions

[quote=nauman;270431]after the creation of irs, the chances of customs officers making it to grade 21/22 are 1 in 100.[/quote]

irs ?

[QUOTE=Arfinite Leghari;325837]Customs group officer live the life of a real king. I met a Grade-18 officer of Customs group and while I met him at his new home, you will not believe that decorators from France were decorating his house. A wealthy person of Pakistan can't think of getting his house decorated from foreign interior designers. Millions will only be the air fare and boarding lodging of the team come from France.

I have seen level the of corruption in PAAS and IRS because few officers of these groups are my relatives. Their wealth is also in countless number. Corrupt people in Customs, PAAS and IRS are living like kings. Our family friend in PAAS (Railway Accounts) who was literally poor not even financially moderate currently doing business in Australia on a large scale and his brother is handling the business. He has many banglows and other property in Pakistan in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Hope it answer your question about the life of officers in Customs and other groups. Mr. Hafeez Shaikh is rite to say that FBR corruption is in billions[/QUOTE]

well I dont think such 'Jahanumi' people should be a source of inspiration for the aspirants..

well,on the contrary i have seen a 19th grade custom officer,who is a very close friend of my father,came in our home in the oldest model car,i have ever seen,when i asked papa about that antique car he replied that he is a dead honest officer and same was the case with his house,so cutting it short,custom officers can earn millions only if they do corruption,an other interesting example is some distant relative of my mother who is some inspector rank officer having a 2 kanal bunglow in defence,so dont associate millions with departments and ranks,and aspirants should also not fancy such luxuries,one should become a CSP to fulfil his duties honestly and bring some changes to this corrupt and rotten system prevailing in pakistan.although i am a junior member but i will suggest honest csp members to share their lifestyles for the inspiration of other members

If someone talks about the life of people in this group than it is our responsibility in the debate to present both sides of the picture. Ayma gave another angle of the life of Custom Group officers by giving example of a dead honest person and I have written what I saw. The reason behind telling you this thing is to see the level of corrupt practices in these groups and how rashly these officers use money earned by corruption

Please must see “Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath” on GEO TV today to find out the level of corruption in IRS and Customs. As per clip seen on TV yesterday about the programe it was stated that Corruption in CBR is 200% higher compare to other department such as Police or Civil bureaucracy. This is hidden corruption because patwari or tehsildar takes money is charged by court or anti corruption or FIA but FBR officers corruption goes un attended. Patwaris and high level officials of Police and DMG are always seen in courts but rarely see any FBR officials in the courts.

According to an informal chat of a friend working in Customs, Custom Grade 17 to 18 officers takes carores of rupees for big consignments and on average 10 to 20 big consignments with hundreds of smaller to medium size consignments are passed every week. Similar situation exists in IRS when my cousin joined Income Tax Group when it was less powerful compare to IRS but he became extremely rich in few years. This is because of heavy corruption in these groups.

These I have told forum that IRS, Customs and PAAS are hidden from anti corruption agencies and our these agencies don’t have knowledge to find out and catch FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CORRUPTION and they only have knowledge how to handle bribery of Police or Tesildards. People of Police and DMG are claimed to be involved in corruption actually according to Kamran Khan FBR Corruption is 200% higher than those and safe and non detectable by anti corruption agencies. Kindly see today's program on and confirm what I used to say about these Corruption in different groups related to Finance and economics.

[B]Debate will take us to the solution of eradicating corruption in different groups so I think we should encourage these types of debates and take part in it.[/B]

[QUOTE=hamza_salick86;328088]well I dont think such 'Jahanumi' people should be a source of inspiration for the aspirants..[/QUOTE]

dear at start mostly CSPs are honest, have good character and so on

but with the passage of time they become corrupt, and lose their character,

and they want a luxury life, but their pay dont allow them, finally they involve in corruption.