A recent audit by the Directorate General of Post Clearance Audit (PCA) has uncovered alarming lapses in Pakistan’s newly launched Faceless Customs Assessment (FCA) system, revealing that restricted and banned goods worth Rs. 10.538 billion were cleared in violation of the Import Policy Order.
🔍 Audit Findings: A Systemic Breakdown
Covering the period from December 16, 2024, to March 15, 2025, the PCA audit found:
•     1,006 Goods Declarations (GDs) involving restricted items were wrongly cleared.
•     Rs. 5.007 billion in duty and tax evasion across 1,524 GDs.
•     Rs. 2.433 billion in lost fines due to failure to frame contravention cases.
•     Total direct losses from these cases amounted to Rs. 7.44 billion.
The report estimates overall revenue losses of Rs. 38 billion in just three months, despite only 8.8% of clearances being audited—suggesting the true scale of losses may be significantly higher.
⚠️ Policy Violations & Suspicious Imports
The audit also flagged:
•     Rs. 30.364 billion in lost fines due to non-enforcement under SRO 499(I)/2009.
•     Rs. 643 million in questionable solar panel imports linked to unauthorized NTNs and user IDs.
🛑 FCA System Under Scrutiny
Launched in December 2024, the FCA system was designed to automate customs assessments and reduce corruption. However, the findings indicate that the system may have inadvertently facilitated large-scale evasion and policy breaches.