Sales tax on imports collection: 10 major revenue spinners contributed around 76 percent

Ten major revenue spinners contributed around 76 percent of the sales tax on imports collection during July-December 2012-13. The FBR''s quarterly report issued on Tuesday revealed that the petroleum sector is the top revenue generation source of sales tax on imports by contributing more than 38 percent of the collection of sales tax on imports.
Edible oil (Ch: 15) is the second major source of revenue with around 8 percent share in total sales tax imports. The collection from edible oil has recorded a decline of 11.7 percent due to 11.4 percent decline in the value of imports. The auto sector (Ch: 87) has also exhibited 7.7 percent growth in the collection due to increase in imports by around 2 percent. The collection of sales tax from plastic manifested a negative growth of 32 percent, partly due to decline in the value of imports by 4.3 percent. Moreover, the higher rate of sales tax was also abolished during the Budget 2012-13 which has also affected the collection of sales tax adversely.
The collection from mechanical machinery and electrical machinery dropped by 27.5 percent and 19 percent respectively. The main reason behind the decline has been the impact of SROs 575(I)/2006 & 727(I)/2011 where exempted sales tax grew substantially by around 47 percent. Moreover, due to abolition of higher rate of sales tax on iron & steel (CH: 72), its collection has come down by 13.6 percent. The import of fertiliser has come down drastically by 40.3 percent which has affected the collection of fertiliser by 42 percent. The collection from organic chemicals (CH: 29) recorded a decline of 7.6 percent. On the other hand, inorganic chemicals (CH: 28) have exhibited 4.1 percent growth in the collection against 8.1 percent growth in the import value, the FBR added.