KARACHI: The overall revenue collection by Pakistan Customs South in the fiscal year so far i.e. six months (July-December 2017-18) stood at Rs551 billion, up 14 percent as against Rs482 billion in the same period last year July-December 2016-17.
The effective duty-tax ratio at Customs also improved to 33 percent this year as revenue of Rs651 billion was collected on dutiable imports of Rs1960 billion compared with ratio of 31 percent last year when a revenue of Rs559 billion was collected on dutiable imports of Rs1820 billion.
Overall, Pakistan Customs’ revenue collection in the period under review stood at Rs651 billion, up 17 percent as against collection of Rs559 billion last year.
Customs Duty collection by Pakistan Customs stood at Rs188 billion during July-December 2017-18 compared with Rs163 billion same period last year. Customs duty collection by Pakistan Customs South region surged and stood at Rs160 billion in July-December FY18 as compared with the collection of Rs140 billion last year.
Overall sales tax collection at import stage stood Rs358 billion during the period under review as against Rs302 billion in the same months last year. Customs Appraisement South’s collection of sales tax at import stage stood at Rs300 billion as against Rs260 billion collected last year in the similar period.
Income tax collected by Pakistan Customs during (July-December FY18) stood at Rs100 billion as compared with Rs90 billion last year. Appraisement South collected Income tax of Rs87 billion in the period as against Rs79 billion collected in the same period last year.
Highest revenue collection in terms of Customs duty came from MCC Appraisement East, which collected Rs51 billion followed by MCC Port Qasim collecting Rs50 billion and MCC Appraisement West collecting Rs39 billion in July-December FY18.
An official said Pakistan had decided not to go to IMF, hence the government was taking measures to increase revenue collection.
An official said targets were set at import stage and customs authorities were forced to increase collection by taking advance duty/taxes from importers. Moreover, at the month end, Customs had to be quite lenient so that more consignments could be cleared and more revenue could be collected, which often compromised the entire process.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has not been able to implement a proper and fool-proof system for increasing the tax-base and revenue collection is skewed towards indirect taxes instead of direct taxes. It is need of hour to increase exports and incentivize exporters instead of relying import-based growth.