Brief about Custom House Karachi

Since independence Custom House Karachi is located on Eduljee Dinshaw Road, Karachi adjacent to the Karachi Port Trust Building. At that time there was only one Collector of Customs and after 1973 the Collectorate of Customs Appraisement fragmented out and there were two Customs Collectors i.e. Preventive and Appraisement. Owing to the rush of work and influx of trade people approaching the Old Custom House it was felt necessary to have a new and prestigious building of the Custom House where the offices could be placed properly and the trade as well as staff members can perform in a better environment. Accordingly in the year 1979, a piece of land measuring 2,30,260 sq feet was procured from Karachi Port Trust. Foundation stone of the new building was placed by the then President of Pakistan General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq on 07.03.1979. It took 8 years to complete the 12 storied prestigious building and the new building was inaugurated on 08.05.1987 by the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Muhammad Khan Junejo. The newly constructed building has 12 floors having covered area of 1,60,140 sq feet. Besides the Collectorates of Customs Preventive and Appraisement more offices and Collectorate of the Central Board of Revenue were shifted in this new building. During the year 1990 the Collectorate of Customs Preventive defragmented into another Collectorate namely Exports Collectorate. This Collectorate also has its headquarters in the same building. The Central Board of Revenue also had its camp office of Member Judicial in this Custom House but as a result of reforms and re-structuring that office did not exist anymore, however the Directorate of Internal Audit, Inspection, IOCO etc were also shifted to this building.

As a part of major reform that took place was the introduction of Model Custom Collectorate. In order to accommodate the new environment and offices having a lot of IT equipment and also to facilitate the trade it was felt necessary that mezzanine floor of the Custom House besides the previous Cash and Accounts Section be re-designed for the Model Custom Collectorate. In the year 2004 Model Custom Collectorate was established and its new offices were placed in the newly constructed extrusion of the Custom House building. At present the building of Custom House Karachi is accommodating following Collectorates and Directorates; COLLECTORATE OF CUSTOMS PREVENTIVE COLLECTORATE OF CUSTOMS APPRAISEMENT MODEL CUSTOMS COLLECTORATE COLLECTORATE OF CUSTOMS EXPORTS DIRECTORATE OF INTERNAL AUDIT DIRECTORATE OF INSPECTION CONTROLLER VALUATION IOCO CAMP OFFICE OF CHAIRMAN/MEMBER FBR OFFICE OF THE CHIEF COORDINATOR COMPUTERIZATION AND PROGRAMMING At present almost 1500 staff members are using this building and a lot of people from various trade communities also visit the Custom House, Karachi for their routine day to day work. source:-cbr.gov.pk