Customs Region (North) surpasses duty target at import stage in Oct

ISLAMABAD: The Customs Region (North) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has surpassed the customs duty target by 14 percent at the import stage during October 2020, and remained lead region in seizing huge quantity of smuggled goods including non-duty paid vehicles, narcotics, foreign origin fabric, tyres, electronics, cigarettes, and other miscellaneous goods during this period.

According to the latest data released by the FBR's Customs Department here on Tuesday, the Customs Region (North) collected a total of Rs5,784 million during the month of October, 2020.

The Region not only achieved but surpassed its customs duty target for October 2020 by a hefty margin of Rs304 million (14 percent) by collecting Rs2,404 million against the assigned target of Rs2,100 million.

Similarly, an amount of Rs2,348 million was collected under the head of sales tax during the same month.

As regards collection of all taxes during October 2020, the Region collected Rs5,784 million.

The Customs Region (North) comprises four Collectorates i.e., Model Customs Collectorates of Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, MCC (Appraisement and Facilitation), Peshawar and MCC (Enforcement and Compliance), Peshawar covering Islamabad/Rawalpindi, the whole of the KP as well as the merged districts of erstwhile FATA.

The performance of the MCC (Appraisement), Peshawar stood exceptional during October 2020 as it collected Rs1,510 million customs duty against the assigned target of Rs880 million, recording a healthy increase of Rs630 million (72 percent).

Similarly, the MCC Islamabad also performed well during October 2020 as it collected Rs791 million customs duty against the assigned target of Rs686 million, which is Rs105 million (15 percent) more.

Similarly, keeping up with the vision of the prime minister to curb the menace of smuggling, the Customs Region (North) seized goods worth Rs573 million during the month of October 2020.

The performance of the MCC (E&C), Peshawar stood exceptional as it seized goods worth Rs343 million during the subject period, which included seizure of NDP vehicles, dry/fresh fruits, narcotics, foreign origin fabric, tyres, electronics, cigarettes, and other miscellaneous goods.

Performance of the MCC Islamabad also remained very good during the preceding month by seizing goods and vehicles worth Rs230 million.

A considerable number of seizures was made on specific information pertaining to smuggled goods, kept in concealment or mixed with other goods.

Moreover, ever since joining of Javed Ghani as chairman FBR and Syed Tariq Huda as Member Customs (Operations), strict directives were issued to all the enforcement formations to utilise and mobilise all available resources for affecting mega cases and curbing the menace of smuggling in close coordination and liaison with other law enforcement agencies.

Besides, senior officers have been advised to regularly visit field formations and personally monitor operations.

The senior officers of the board personally monitor performance of the field formations on a daily basis with regards to revenue collection and anti-smuggling operations.

In line with these directions, field formations of the North Region made all out efforts and geared up anti-smuggling operations for affecting mega cases and achieving maximum revenue.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020