ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Customs Nasir Masroor has said that FBR Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan played a vital role in achieving revenue collection target for fiscal year 2015-16. He said the FBR adopted a comprehensive strategy in collection of revenue and because of this strategy, the board collected 35 percent more revenue than the assigned target.
During an exclusive interview with Customs Today, Member Customs Nasir Masoor said that the Customs Department collected Rs 406 billion against the assigned target of Rs 127 billion under the head of different duties and taxes. He said that the Customs Department set a record in this regard. He said that the entire Customs Department showed outstanding performance performance for achieving the target for fiscal year 2015-16. He hoped that customs officials and staff will continue to perform with same zeal for achieving revenue collection target set for fiscal year 2016-17.
He said that FBR issued strict directions against non-duty paid vehicles and smuggled vehicles. He said that customs authorities are using all available resouces to curb smuggling activities from Balochistan, Swat and Gilit Baltistan. He said that we are strengthening the process of enforcement, while on the other hand we are adopting such mechanism through which we will be able to control fruad which are taking place through under invoicing.
In reply to a question Member Customs Nasir Masoor Ahmad said that government decrease customs duty on 2300 items in federal budget of 2015-16. He said that due to some fluctuations in duties we generated an amount of Rs11 billion.
Answering a question Member Customs Nasir Masroor said that we are trying our level best to complete EDI project with Afghanistan and United Arab Emirates (UAE). He said that Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation played vital role in curbing smuggling attempts. He said that under the leadership of Director General Imtiaz Ahmad Khan, Customs Intelligence and Investigation department showed outstanding performance in curb smuggling. He said according to official data they are performing more than their available resources.
He said that we are also focusing on to strengthen our monitoring system because through this we will also be able to generate more revenue. He said that we sought assistance from law enforcement agencies to control smuggling through Pakistan Afghanistan Transit Trade. Nasir Masoor said that we also upgrades the system of tracker system, while we are examing various proposals and suggestions to bring improvement in customs performance.
Member Customs Nasir Masoor said that due to effective strategy customs departmen, a marginable decrease is being witnessed in smugglingo f Iranian diesel through Balochistan and other areas of the country. He said that we are also increasing the numbers of check-posts in Balochistan. Member Customs Nasir Masoor said that it is not an easy task to collect Rs127 billion from assigned target.
In reply to a question Member Customs Nasir Masoor said that we are gettubg positive results of our effective revenue collection policy. He said we are quite optimisti to achieve revenue collection target set for fiscal year 2015-16 well ahead of deadline.
