To make the country's bond management completely technology-based and transparent, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has made it mandatory to use the Customs Bond Management System (CBMS) from January 1, 2026.
The agency issued a circular in this regard on Monday (December 1).
According to the NBR, the entire approval process for the Utilization Permission (UP) that exporters holding bonded warehouse licences take for duty-free import of raw materials will now have to be completed online.
After the specified date, UP issuance or related services will not be provided through any other means other than CBMS.
The NBR launched this software from January 1, 2025 to bring bond management under automation.
Currently, three Customs Bond Commissionerates are providing online services using 24 modules of this system.
However, even though the UP module is in place, most of the institutions are still receiving services manually. As a result, the desired progress has not been made even after 11 months.
NBR says that the necessary improvements and modifications have been made to the software based on user feedback. As a result, the system is now more user-friendly than before.
According to NBR, the mandatory use of the software will bring significant changes in bond management. These include:
- Ensuring speed, transparency and accountability in the service process
- Saving time and cost for bonded institutions
- Automatic record keeping as input-output accounting of raw materials is digital
- Reducing the hassle of submitting manual documents
- Significantly reducing bond-related disputes and complications
NBR says that the bonded warehousing system is being brought under full automation in stages to create an investment-friendly environment and further strengthen the economy.
All revenue management processes will be brought under digitalization in stages to ensure transparency and accountability.
