ISLAMABAD: The expanding leather sector has emerged as a prominent taxpayer during the last three years. In this regard, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has played a key role in tax collections as the field officers improved their access and contacts both with exporters and importers in the leather sector.
Source at the FBR shared data with Customs Today which shows that the revenue collection from the leather sector has gradually increased over the years. In the fiscal year 2013-14, the leather sector paid Rs 429.54 million as customs duty, Rs 577.87 million sales tax and Rs 237.26 million as withholding tax on imports.
However, in the next fiscal year 2014-15, the FBR collected Rs 603.37 million as customs duty, Rs 787.87 million as sales tax and Rs 296.72 million as withholding tax on imports. This year the tax collection witnessed a huge increase and it was only due to the strict measures taken by the FBR.
The data revealed that in the previous fiscal year, 2015-16, FBR field officers collected Rs 1010.87 million as customs duty, Rs 968.34 million as sales tax and Rs 361.26 million as withholding tax on imports. The said amount was collected through import stages.
Similarly, the data stated that domestically the FBR collected Rs 561.5 million sales tax in financial year 2015-16. Whereas this amount was Rs 579.9 million in the previous fiscal year 2014-15 and Rs 458.9 million in the fiscal year 2013-14. This increase in the sales tax collection was result of increased sales of leather products in the domestic market as well as higher quantity of leather items in the country.
The data further disclosed that Rs 711.5 million as income tax in the fiscal year 2013-14 and Rs 1534.4 in next fiscal year 2014-15 while tune of income tax from leather sector remained Rs 1571.0 million in the last financial year 2015-16.
