KARACHI: The effective rate of customs duty on country’s overall imports averaged at 6.48 percent for the nine-months (July-March 2016-17), which is almost flat as the effective rate of duty on overall imports was 6.29 percent in the same period last year.
For the nine-months (July-March 2016-17) overall imports clocked in at Rs3.842 trillion, out of which 71.5 percent were dutiable imports while the rest were duty free. For the nine-months (July-March 2015-16) overall imports clocked in at Rs3.444 trillion, out of which 70 percent were dutiable imports while the rest were duty free.
Customs is said to be making many efforts to increase revenue collection including measures to check smuggling, under-invoicing and revenue evasion through mis-declaration. However, there has been no considerable difference in the effective rate of customs duty despite the fact the ratio of dutiable imports remains almost the same.
The value of overall imports during the period under review has surged 11.5 percent while the overall revenue collection surged by only 8.2 percent. The overall revenue collection during July-March 2016-17 stood at Rs842.403 billion compared with Rs778.885 billion same period last year.
The dutiable imports during the period under review surged by 15.25 percent while the revenue collection inched up by a relatively dismal 8.2 percent.
Given the situation, Pakistan Customs is unlikely to achieve its revenue collection target for the current fiscal year.
Customs Duty collection by Pakistan Customs stood at Rs249.238 billion during July-March 2016-17 compared with Rs216.789 billion same period last year. Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs South region stood at Rs214.727 billion in July-March 2016-17 as compared with the collection of Rs186.316 billion last year.
Overall sales tax collection at import stage stood Rs457.923 billion during the period under review as against Rs435.45 billion in the same months last year.
Customs Appraisement South’s collection of sales tax at import stage stood at Rs394.242 billion as against Rs364.16 billion collected last year in the similar period.
Income tax collected by Pakistan Customs during (July-March 2016-17) stood at Rs135.256 billion as compared with Rs126.636 billion last year. Appraisement South collected Income tax of Rs119.814 billion in the period as against Rs110.58 billion collected in the same period last year.
Highest revenue collection in terms of Customs duty came from MCC Port Qasim, which collected Rs69.089 billion followed by MCC Appraisement West collecting Rs63.206 billion and MCC Appraisement East collecting Rs58.38 billion in July-March 2016-17.
Pakistan Customs not likely to achieve revenue collection target for 2016-17
