ISLAMABAD: The Customs North Region has surpassed the revenue target of the first nine months of the current financial year.
This was disclosed by the Chief Collector Customs North Sarwat Tahira in the collectors conference. The collectors conference of northern region comprising customs Peshawar, customs Islamabad, customs Sambrial and customs Gigitst-Baltistan headed by chief Collector Customs (North), Islamabad Sarwat Tahira Habib was held in Islamabad.
Collector Dr. Arslan Sabutageen , collector Sambrial Ahmed Raza Khan, collector Gilgit Baltistan Muhammad Ali Raza, additional collector headquarter Peshawar Syed Fazal Samad, deputy collector Peshawar Zakir Muhammad and additional collector Ayesha Wani attend the conference.
The main objective of the conference was to analyse the revenue collection against the assigned targets for the period July 2015 to March 2016.
However, matters relating to trade facilitation, customs automation process and customs enforcement were also discussed.
Chief Collector appreciated the efforts made by the collectorates for revenue collection. The north region collected Rs 9646.15 million customs duty from July 2015 to March 2016 as against the target of Rs 7872.99 million. This collection of customs duty is 8.5 percent higher than the previous financial years collection from July 2014 to March 2015.
As regards the total revenue including all taxes, North Region collected Rs29026.5 million during July 2015 to March 2016 as against the target of Rs26018.14 million, which is 11.6 percent higher than the same period of last financial year (2014-2015). The current total figures are showing continuously growth in revenue. The conference discussed the future strategy for achieving the targets for the last quarter.
It was decided to make efficient use of WeBOC system which target major imports and enhance efforts to recover revenue which is stuck up in the auction-able goods, recoveries and litigation.
The chief collector also observed that though the performance of anti smuggling teams in the region has improved during past three months. However, there was still need to carry on a well coordinated anti-smuggling drive by customs Peshawar, Islamabad and Sambrial.
The chief collector expressed satisfaction over the introduction and increase in the coverage of WeBOC at various Customs ports, stations in the northern region and directed the collectorates to remove the genuine difficulties faced by the traders during the change to fully automated system of Customs clearance. The Chief Collector also directed to the Collectors that they take strict measure against the tax evaders.