Despite large scale tariff rationalisation, customs duty is still one of the significant sources of collection of federal taxes during 2012-2013, according to FBR's quarterly review issued here on Tuesday. The remarkable performance of the customs department is due to the effective monitoring and enforcement by FBR Member Customs Mohammad Riaz, whom played key role in the whole process.
The customs duty is the only federal levy persistently showing upward trend despite revenue shortfall in other taxes. Co-ordinated efforts of Mohammad Riaz resulted in historic achievement of customs duty during current fiscal year, sources said. According to the quarterly review, customs duty constitutes 19.4 percent and 12 percent of the indirect taxes and all taxes respectively. The gross and net collection from customs duty during July-December, 2012-13 has been Rs 112.7 billion and Rs 107.4 billion, respectively, entailing growths of 13.5 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively. The payments of refunds/rebates have recorded a decline of 5.2 percent during first half of current fiscal year.
It is evident from data that around 56 percent of the customs duty has been emanated from 10 major commodities grouped in PCT Chapters Automobile, the leading revenue spinner, has contributed 19.1 percent in the customs duty during first half of (2012-13) and exhibited a robust growth of 15.4 percent in the collection against 7.8 percent growth in the dutiable imports. The collection of customs from edible oil (Ch: 15) has shown negative growth of 1.3 percent due to negative growth of 11.4 percent in dutiable imports. Edible oils are mainly subject to specific rate of customs duty; therefore, value of import of edible oils does not affect customs duty. However, the imported quantity of crude palm oil has dropped enormously which has resulted in overall negative growth in edible oils.
The collection from petroleum products has declined by 1.3 percent during first half (2012-13) while dutiable imports increased by 2 percent . HSD is the major revenue generator of customs duties in the petroleum products. The collection from HSD has declined by 1 percent while dutiable imports grew by around 1 percent . Most of the imports of petroleum products is exempted from customs duty like furnace, motor spirit etc. As far as mechanical machinery (Ch:84) is concerned, revenue collection from this source has dropped by 5.2 percent mainly due to decline in the dutiable imports. The collection from electrical energy grew marginally against 13.4 percent growth in dutiable imports. The collection from plastic (Ch: 39) has decreased by 9.3 percent against a decline of 8.2 percent in dutiable imports, report said.
A decline of 15.7 percent was manifested by customs duty in iron & steel (Ch; 72) but there is slight growth of 1.2 percent in dutiable imports. On other hand, duty free imports have increased substantially by 37.3 percent. The collection of CD from paper & paper board and organic chemicals recorded declines of 31.5 percent and 1.8 percent mainly due to decline in their dutiable imports by 19.4 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. The collection from tea has grown by 4.6 percent due to 6.8 percent growth in the dutiable imports, FBR maintained.