Customs Region (North) collects Rs2,173m in November

The Customs Region (North) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 2,173 million as Customs duty during November 2019 as compared to Rs 1,876 million collected during November 2018, reflecting an increase of 16 percent.

According to the data released by the Customs here on Monday, an amount of Rs 2,485 million has been collected under the head of Sales Tax during November 2019 as compared to Rs 1,770 million collected during November 2018, which is 40% higher when compared to the last financial year. As regards collection of all taxes is concerned, the North Region collected Rs 5,916 million during November 2019 against the assigned target of Rs 5,530 million (+7% more) as compared to Rs 4,620 million collected during the corresponding period of the last year, thus registering an increase of Rs 1,296 million (+28%).

The Customs Region (North) comprises four Collectorates i.e. Model Customs Collectorates of Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and MCC Appraisement and Preventive, Peshawar, covering the whole of KPK as well as the merged districts of erstwhile FATA. On revenue collection side, the performance of Gilgit-Baltistan stood exceptional. During November 2019, the GB Collectorate collected Rs 1,450 million against the assigned target of Rs 404 million, as compared to Rs 745 million collected during November 2018 which is Rs 705 million more than the previous year, thus recording an impressive growth of 95%.

On the enforcement/ anti-smuggling side, the Customs Region (North) also performed exceptionally well despite severe constraints of logistics and personnel to cover the vast jurisdiction comprising almost three provinces. During November 2019, the North Region seized huge quantity of smuggled and non-duty paid goods including vehicles, narcotics, currency and gold, etc, to the tune of Rs 631 million. MCC Islamabad affected seizure having value to the tune of Rs 192 million which includes seizure of foreign origin smuggled miscellaneous goods (i.e. medicines, cosmetics, perfumery etc) at premises/ godowns of M/s Shaheen Chemists having value Rs 12 million and 17 non-duty paid luxury vehicles having value of Rs 130 million.

MCC Preventive, Peshawar on the other hand seized smuggled goods, having total value around Rs 439 million during the month of Novembeer 2019 which includes seizures of food items valuing Rs 34 million, auto parts having value Rs 30 million, cloth, black tea, tiles and other miscellaneous goods worth Rs 137 million, besides a number of non-customs paid vehicles.

All the four Collectorates of Customs Region (North) contributed significantly in successfully attaining their respective revenue and seizures targets. Chief Collector Customs (North), Islamabad, Dr Asif Mahmood Jah (Sitara-e-Imtiaz) attributed this achievement to God's kindness, besides the untiring efforts and hard work of all the officers and staff of the Region under the dynamic leadership of Chairman FBR Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi and Member Customs (Operations), Dr Jawwad Uwais Agha, who kept a strong vigilance during the year and kept issuing regular instructions for maximizing revenue efforts through goods clearance, auctions, recovery of arrears and encashment of bank guarantees etc.

He also expressed confidence that all the officers and staff will maintain this level of efficiency and put in their best possible efforts to continue and strive for such success in future as well. The Chief Collector Customs (North) further emphasized the officers and staff to ensure strict discipline, adopt austerity measures, honesty and unflinching enforcement of laws for the economic uplift of the country during the ongoing financial crisis faced by the country. Moreover, directions have also been issued to all collectorates for weeding out corrupt and delinquent elements.