KARACHI: The collection of revenue in terms of duty and taxes on the import of oil including petroleum and edible oil remained 17 percent short of the target during October 2013 to January 2014.
The Customs had fixed the cumulative target at Rs1,203 million for this 4-month period, of which the Customs collected Rs1,003 million in the shape of duty/taxes on the import of oil products.
According to official opinion, the reasons for shortfall in collection of customs duty include increase in import of non-dutyable goods specifically crude petroleum oil; less import of HSD because the local refineries have increased the production of HSD; less import of edible oil and less duty collection on edible oil due to implementation of free trade agreement (FTA) with Indonesia.
It is interesting to note that the duty collection just met the target in October 2013 while in November and December 2013, fell significantly short of target, but duty collection by the oil section in January 2014 surpassed the target by 42 percent as the Customs collected Rs282.784 million against the target of Rs200 million during the above-mentioned four months.
The primary reason for increased duty collection in January by the oil section is higher diesel (HSD) import because of the campaign launched against the smuggling of diesel from Iran.
This anti-smuggling campaign has been in process following the directives of Chief Justice of Pakistan after which a joint committee was formed to check smuggling.
Duty collection on import of oil products misses the target by 17 percent
