Member Customs (Operations) Dr Jawwad Uwais Agha has concluded marathon sessions with Chief Collector and Collectors of the Central Region (Lahore Appraisement & Preventive, Faisalabad and Multan) of Pakistan Customs to analyze the performance in terms of revenue collection and enforcement operations during the current financial year and finalize the strategy to maximize the revenue collection during the remaining period of the financial year without compromising upon trade facilitation.
The revenue collection of the Central Region in terms of total duty and taxes comes to Rs 160 billion which is 6% Customs Duty during the period July 2018 to April, 2019. The collection of Customs duty comes to Rs 66 billion which is 32% more as compared to same period of the last year. Likewise the Central Region has collected Rs 75 billion as Sales Tax Rs 17 billion as Withholding Tax and Rs 1.7 billion as Federal Excise Duty.
Similarly, the central region has seized smuggled goods amounting to Rs 1.5 billion during the last ten months by taking effective enforcement measures. The recovery of arrears has also been expedited and as a result MCC Appraisement Lahore has auctioned three properties of the defaulters, unprecedented in this region. The performance of the Model Collectorate of Customs Preventive Lahore was specially reviewed. It was observed that MCC Preventive has showed tremendous growth by collecting Rs 17 billion in the current Financial Year so far which exceeds the proportionate target by 34% and in comparison with same period of last year it is 67% more. During the month of May 2019 the Collectorate of Customs Preventive Lahore has collected Customs Duty to the tune of Rs 1195 million so far which is 20% more than the proportionate monthly target and 94% more than the corresponding period of the last FY.
The initiatives taken and efforts made to deal with the menace of money laundering were examined thread bear and output of border task force was discussed.
Further steps were planned to enhance the vigilance at border points and airports to ensure curbing of cash smuggling. The Member Customs (Operations) directed the Chief Collectors and Collectors to carry out surveys and mapping exercises to identify the storage places and markets of smuggled goods and to block the entry and exit points of the same. All the field formations shall particularly increase the level of surveillance to prevent the movement of smuggled goods to the markets.
Information based anti-smuggling operations need to be conducted with full vigor and all available resources. The Central Region has effected 736 seizures of non-duty paid vehicles and smuggled goods worth Rs 2178 million during the period July 2018 till date during the current FY.
The Collectorate of Customs Preventive Lahore made 303 seizures valuing at Rs 1150 million in the period. The Collectorate has made record number of seizures of foreign currency at Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore as a part of anti-money laundering drive. During the current FY in 24 cases foreign currency equivalent to Rs 90.2 million was seized and similarly the seizure cases of gold and narcotics have witnessed 100% growth as compared to the last year.