MULTAN: The Customs Collectorate has shown exceptional performance in the revenue generation so far but income of the collectorate is falling sharply due to imposition of Infrastructure Development Cess on the import shipments.
This was stated by Collector Saud Imran Ahmad during an exclusive interview with Customs Today in his office. He said that Multan Customs is a major revenue generating Collectorate of Central Region and Customs Collectorate has its significant importance for business community due to its geographical location.
He said that Multan Customs Dry Port is the only clearance station in South Punjab for importers in the region. Collector Saud Imran expressed his concern over the lack of interest of the businessmen to import their consignments through Multan Dry Port.
The major revenue collection of Multan Customs import clearances of ex-bonding is comprised of High Speed Diesel (HSD) products and its almost 97 per cent of entire import from Multan Dry Port.
He told that Multan Dry Port is the only facilitation hub for importers of this region but business community preferred their import clearances from other stations like Karachi for their import clearances due to their personal benefits.
The import clearances from Multan Dry Port increased the cost of business for manufacturer due to high freight charges and it is one of the major factors which compelled importers for the clearance of their shipments from Karachi instead of Multan for the competitive edge in the business by saving cost of clearance.
The decline in the import clearances from Multan Dry Port is the main concern for Collectorate in accomplishing set revenue target and it becomes challenging after the imposition of Infrastructure Development Cess on importer shipment.
The Customs Collectorate has collected Rs6437.115 million Customs duties against set target of Rs.6446.730 million from July to April in the on-going fiscal year 2016-17.He stated that Collectorate has fetched Rs664.817 million revenue in terms of customs duties during April of the current economic year 2016-17. We are striving hard to collect more revenue for the completion of assigned target by adopting effective strategy. The Collectorate has taken few measures for the generation of further revenue through Airport and anti-smuggling activities.
Collector informed that he will meet business community of Multan Chamber of Commerce very soon to insist them for their import clearances from Multan Dry Port to tap more revenue
Saud Imran believed that Anti-Smuggling Organization has more scope and we will carry out extensive anti-smuggling operations in the jurisdiction to curb smuggling in the region.
He told that almost 9 various smuggled vehicles of worth millions were impounded by anti-smuggling car cell during April in their actions. He said that smuggling is damaging our national economy and we are adopting aggressive strategy against smuggling in the region.
