ISLAMABAD: Increase in value of rupee versus dollar pushed net collection of customs duty up by around one per cent, while gross and net collection from customs duty remained Rs249.7 billion and Rs241 billion respectively during 2013-14.
According to the Year Book 2013-14 issued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the customs duty contributed around 17.4 per cent and 10.6 per cent in the indirect taxes and federal taxes respectively during 2013-14. The base of customs duty is dutiable imports. Any fluctuation in the tax base affects the collection of customs duty.
Dutiable imports constituted around 38 per cent of the total imports during 2013-14. It reflects high level of exemptions of imports from customs duty. The duty free imports grew by 5.9 per cent while dutiable imports have grown by 7.6 per cent.
The gross and net collection from customs duty has been Rs 249.7 billion and Rs 241 billion respectively during 2013-14. The difference between the gross and net collection is the refund/rebate payment. In fact, Rs 8.7 billion has been paid back as refunds/rebates during the year. The net collection of customs duty yielded a growth of around 1 per cent. One of the major reasons of this low growth is appreciation of rupees against dollar.
The performance of major revenue spinners of customs in 2013-14 revealed that there is a considerable degree of concentration of collection of customs duty in few items ie vehicles, edible oils, petroleum, machinery and plastic contributed around 45 per cent of the total collection from customs during 2013-14. Similarly, 52.3 per cent of the total collection of customs duty has been realised from 10 major commodities groups.
Automobile (Ch:87) is the top revenue spinner of customs duty. The collection from automobile has dropped by 14.2 per cent during 2013-14 due to decline of 6.7 per cent in the value of dutiable imports. The customs duty mainly emanated from motor cars (87.03) which are mostly subject to tariff peaks. Dutiable imports of motor car etc have declined by 17.6 per cent which has adversely affected the collection from this head by 19 per cent. As a result declined in collection has also dropped the share of vehicles in total customs duty collection from 16.9 per cent to 14.5 per cent in total customs duty in 2013-14.
Edible oils (CH:15) is the second major source of revenue generation of customs duty. During 2013-14, a growth of 2 per cent in the collection from edible oils was recorded as compared to the collection during 2012-13. On the other hand, the value of dutiable imports was declined by 5.7 per cent. The edible oils are mostly subject to specific rate of duty; therefore, the growth in the value of dutiable imports has no impact on revenue collection, the FBR Year Book said.
The petroleum products have been the 3rd major revenue source of customs duty. Some of the major petroleum items like crude oil, furnace oil, motor spirit etc are exempted from customs duty. The dutiable imports have recorded negative growth by 16.1 per cent. Similarly, the customs duty from POL products has dropped by 17.8 per cent. The customs duty from petroleum products mainly depends on the level of contribution by High Speed Diesel Oil (HSD). In fact, the value of dutiable imports of HSD has declined by 13.1 per cent per cent while its collection has also dropped by 18 per cent, FBR report said.
The dutiable imports of mechanical machinery (CH:84) and electrical machinery (CH:85) have grown by 10.8 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively while collection of customs duty grew by 11.2 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively.
The collection from plastic items (CH:39) has increased significantly by 25.3 per cent. This growth is mainly attributable to growth of 26.3 per cent in dutiable imports during 2013-14. As far as iron and steel (CH: 72) is concerned, the collection has declined by 17.5 per cent against decline in dutiable imports by 10.8 per cent. The remaining items of major spinners have recorded positive growths in the collection due to growths in their respective dutiable imports, the FBR held.
