KARACHI: The overall revenue collection by Pakistan Customs in the fiscal year so far i.e. eight months (July-February 2016) has surged by 12.5 percent to Rs677 billion as against Rs602 billion in the same period last year July-February 2015.
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,” official said.
The Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs surged by 16.5 percent to Rs189.896 billion in July-February 2016 as compared with the collection of Rs163.209 billion in same period last year.
Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs South region surged by 21.6 percent to Rs163.01 billion in July-February 2016 as compared with the collection of Rs133.86 billion last year.
Overall sales tax collection at import stage stood Rs369.78 billion during the period under review, up 11.7 percent as against Rs330.67 billion in the same months last year.
Customs Appraisement South’s collection of sales tax at import stage stood at Rs308.5 billion, up 10.5 percent as against Rs279.12 billion collected last year in the similar period.
Income tax collected by Pakistan Customs during (July-February 2016) stood at Rs111.108 billion as compared with Rs92.366 billion last year. Appraisement South collected Income tax of Rs96.83 billion in the period as against Rs79.6 billion collected in the same period last year.
Highest revenue collection in terms of Customs duty came from MCC Appraisement West, which collected Rs50.071 billion followed by MCC Port Qasim collecting Rs48.545 billion and MCC Appraisement East collecting Rs45.55 billion in July-February 2016.
For the months of July-February 2016, MCC Rawalpindi CD collection stood at Rs1.85 billion compared with Rs2.39 billion collected in same period last year; MCC Lahore CD collection stood at Rs15.54 billion (Rs16.01 billion in July-February 2015); MCC Islamabad CD collection Rs1.218 billion (Rs1.002 billion July-February 2015); MCC Peshawar CD collection Rs4.2 billion (Rs3.302 billion July-February 2015); MCC Multan CD collection Rs3.117 billion (Rs5.32 billion July-February 2015); MCC Hyderabad CD collection Rs1.012 billion (Rs1.13 billion July- January 2015); MCC Quetta CD collection Rs1.359 billion (Rs571.68 million July-February 2015); MCC Karachi preventive CD collection Rs16.27 billion (Rs8.072 billion July-February 2015); MCC Karachi EPZ-Imports CD collection stood at Rs191.76 million (Rs95.64 million July- January 2015); MCC Sialkot CD collection Rs92.42 million (Rs77.67 million July-February 2015) and MCC Faisalabad customs duty collection in July-February 2016 stood at Rs648.5 million compared with R993.92 million collected in July-February 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.