KARACHI: The Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Appraisement-East under supervision of Collector Najeebur Rehman Abbasi has collected Rs 4,874 million during the first five days of September depicting an increase of over 100 per cent as compared to Rs 2,310 million collected during the same period last year.
Figures show that the Collectorate has collected Rs 1,254 million in Customs Duty; Rs 2,777 million in Sales Tax, Rs 819 million in Withholding Tax and Rs 24 million in Federal Excise Duty during the five days. This includes Rs 249 million Customs Duty; Rs 445 million Sales Tax, Rs 90 million Withholding Tax and Rs 5 million Federal Excise Duty collected on the 5th of this month.
During the first five days of September, 2013, the Collectorate had collected Rs 2,312 million comprising Rs 491 million Customs Duty; Rs 1,371 Sales Tax, Rs 446 million Withholding Tax and Rs 4 million Federal Excise Duty.
Informed sources attributed the substantial increase in revenue under all the four heads; namely Customs Duty, Sales Tax, Withholding Tax and Federal Excise Duty, during the first five days of this month over the same period last year to three primary factors: active facilitation to help solve the issues of the importers; reduction in litigation arising out of this active facilitation and the instructions issued by the Collector Appraisement-East to the Customs Officers posted at the terminals- namely PICT, Pak Shaheen, NLC and East Wharf Bulk-to issue NOC if IPO certification for certain items is not required to help save importers time to ensure timely delivery.
The proactive facilitation and open door policy to help solve the issues along with the posting of two additional collectors, one exclusively at the PICT and the other at East Wharf have also contributed to increased collection of the Customs Duty due to quick grounding time.