KARACHI: The overall revenue collection by Pakistan Customs in the fiscal year so far i.e. seven months (July-January 2016) has surged by 10.9 percent to Rs589.078 billion as against Rs531.05 billion in the same period last year July-January 2016.
An official said the quantum of legitimate imports had surged owing to the rigorous anti-smuggling campaign being pursued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which is evident from over 22 percent surge in the value of dutiable imports during the period.
The official said illegitimate trade was a menace that had multi-pronged impacts on the economy. “Though we have no actual figures at hand, but it is safe to say that smuggling has been inflicting a loss of hundreds of billions on to the economy every year”.
The Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs surged by 15 percent to Rs165.78 billion in July-January 2016 as compared with the collection of Rs144.02 billion in same period last year.
Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs MCC south region surged by 20.5 percent to Rs142.12 billion in July-January 2016 as compared with the collection of Rs117.88 billion last year.
Overall sales tax collection at import stage stood Rs320.35 billion during the period under review, up 10.5 percent as against Rs289.72 billion in the same months last year.
Appraisement South’s collection of sales tax at import stage stood at Rs268.27 billion, up 9.8 percent as against Rs244.19 collected last year in the similar period.
Income tax collected by Pakistan Customs during (July-January 2016) stood at Rs97.13 billion as compared with Rs82.02 billion last year. Appraisement South collected Income tax of Rs84.5 billion in the period as against Rs70.8 billion collected in the same period last year.
Highest revenue collection in terms of Customs duty came from MCC Appraisement West, which collected Rs43.6 billion followed by MCC Port Qasim collecting Rs41 billion and MCC P Appraisement East collecting Rs40.8 billion in July-January 2016.
For the months of July-January 2016, MCC Rawalpindi CD collection stood at Rs1.7 billion compared with Rs2.23 billion collected in same period last year; MCC Lahore CD collection stood at Rs13.5 billion (Rs14.12 billion in July-January 2015); MCC Islamabad CD collection Rs1.03 billion (Rs890 million July-January 2015); MCC Peshawar CD collection Rs3.8 billion (Rs2.92 billion July-January 2015); MCC Multan CD collection Rs2.92 billion (Rs4.8 billion July- January 2015); MCC Hyderabad CD collection Rs901.25 million (Rs993 million July- January 2015); MCC Quetta CD collection Rs1.17 billion (Rs495 million July- January 2015); MCC Karachi preventive CD collection Rs14.4 billion (Rs7.06 billion July- January 2015); MCC Karachi EPZ-Imports CD collection stood at Rs170 million (Rs81.8 million July- January 2015); MCC Sialkot CD collection Rs80 million (Rs71 million July-January 2015) and MCC Faisalabad customs duty collection in July-January 2016 stood at Rs535 million compared with R915 million collected in July-January 2015.
The revenue collection has been surging under the Customs and it is expected the revenue collection would further surge as several exemptions have been removed. Moreover, the anti-smuggling campaign underway, having the consensus of PML-N government as well as military leadership, has discouraged the illicit trade and more government’s legitimate revenue realization is affected.