KARACHI: The Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs surged by 21.37 percent to Rs119.169 billion during six months ended December 31, 2014 as compared with the collection of Rs98.185 billion in the same period last year.
Similarly customs duty collection by Appraisement South region surged by 21.8 percent to Rs96.778 billion during the six months ended December 31, 2014 as against the collection of Rs79.452 billion in the same period last year.
Overall sales tax collection at import stage stood Rs244.170 billion during the period under review, up 9.93 percent as against Rs222.588 billion in the same period last year.
Appraisement South collection of sales tax at import stage stood at Rs205.459 billion, up 9.25 percent as against Rs188.047 collected last year.
Similarly, Income tax collected by Customs during the six-month period stood at Rs68.435 billion as compared with Rs61.287 billion last year. Appraisement South collected Income tax of Rs58.945 billion in the six-month period ended December 31, 2014 as against Rs52.83 billion collected in the same period last year.
Highest revenue collection in terms of Customs duty came from MCC Appraisement West, which collected Rs34.812 billion followed by MCC Port Qasim collecting Rs27.575 billion and MCC Appraisement East collecting Rs27.059 billion in the half-year ended December 31, 2014.
For the 6-month period ended December 31, 2014 (2H2014), MCC Rawalpindi CD collection stood at Rs2.041 billion compared with Rs717.31 million collected in same period last year i.e. 2H2013); MCC Lahore CD collection stood at Rs12.083 billion (Rs8.951 million 2H2013); MCC Islamabad CD collection Rs724.5 million (Rs621.87 million 2H2013); MCC Peshawar CD Rs2.537 billion (Rs2.534 billion 2H2013); MCC Multan CD collection Rs4.069 billion (Rs4.902 billion 2H2013); MCC Hyderabad CD collection Rs838.1 million (Rs1.564 billion 2H2013); MCC Quetta CD collection Rs395.77 million (Rs197.26 million 2H2013); MCC Karachi preventive CD collection Rs6.031 billion (Rs4.844 billion 2H2013); MCC Karachi EPZ-Imports CD collection stood at Rs65.88 million (Rs50.22 million 2H2013); MCC Sialkot CD collection Rs55.65 million (Rs113.30 million 2H2013) and MCC Faisalabad customs duty collection in 2H2014 stood at Rs833.96 million compared with Rs892.19 million collected in 2H2013.
Mohammad Saleem, Collector Appraisement West, told Customnews.pk that FBR assigned targets to Customs for the purpose of preparing for the budget. “It does not mean that Customs had any obligation to achieve these targets by any means. These are just benchmarks set on the basis of previous collections,” he said.
Besides, Pakistan had made several commitments with the donor agencies to meet certain standards and setting targets was a way forward in that direction, Mohammad Saleem said adding that revenue collection targets were often revised given the unfavorable and recession like circumstances.
He ruled that the impression that Customs authorities received duty in advance from importers to meet the targets and said that Karachi was almost 95 percent operating the WeBOC system, which was computerized system and advance duty collection could not be adjusted in that.
He, however, said that in cases where ships had anchored and IGMs had been filed, customs asked importers to file GDs few days early, and there was no refund or adjustment against that.
Meanwhile, Collector Port Qasim Surayya Butt has appreciated ADCs Saeed Akram, Ahsan Shah, Irfan Javed, DC/AC Wajid Zaman, Falak Sher, Rehan Akram, Hina Gul, Fazli Shakoor, Sajid Baloch, Shahid Abbasi and principal appraisers and appraisers/examiners for the stellar performance.
Najeeb Abbasi, Collector Appraisement East, has appreciated the efforts of ADCs Zeba Bashir, Mohammad Tahir, Shahab Imam, Jameel Baloch, Khalil Yousafani; DC/AC asim Khokher, Arshad Khan, Ibrahim Khan, Ataullah Shabbir, Rizwan Mehmood, Asim Rehman, Mohammad Faisal and principal appraisers and appraisers/examiners for the stellar performance.
Mohammad Saleem, collector Appraisement West has appreciated ADCs Dr. Iftikhar, Nayyar Shafique, Naeem Akhtar, Azher Merchant, DC/ACs Ghulam Nabi Kamboh, Sadia Sadaf, Naveed Iqbal, Adnan Iqbal Swati, Dr. Noman, Abdul hayee Shaikh, Akbar Jaan Usman Tariq, Arsalan Majeed, Noreen Riaz Khan, Mariam Mehdi, Principal appraisers, appraising officers and examining officers for stellar performance.