ISLAMABAD: The Deputy Collector Islamabad Dry Port said we must discourage imports in order to avoid trade deficit and focus on exports. The government must provide full facilitation to the exporters for promotion of local products.
This was stated by Deputy Collector Islamabad Dry Port (IDP) Tahir Iqbal Khattak while giving an exclusive interview to Customs Today.
He said that, due to imposition of Regulatory Duty (RD), a number of containers were turned down against the corresponding months of FY17-18 while there is no decline showed in the collection of duties and taxes during the month of November FY2017-18.
The Deputy Collector told CT that, due to holidays in China, the business activity has been less against the last month of October FY17-18. The imported consignments have been held at Karachi Port and some cases have also been filed against the imposition of RD in the court due to which business activity has been slow at Islamabad Dry Port since one week.
The Deputy Collector optimistically said the IDP collected surplus revenue collection during 1st Quarter (July to September) under all the heads against the assigned revenue collection target and the IDP will again show outstanding performance during the coming 2nd Quarter (November to December) FY2017-18 under all the heads.
During the month of October FY17-18, the IDP surpassed the allocated revenue collection target with an extra amount of Rs129.23million under all the heads. The IDP was earmarked Rs488.83million under the heads of Customs Duty, Sales Tax, Federal Excise Duty and Income Tax whereas it earned Rs618.06million against above said assigned heads. So the total profit is Rs129million. The IDP showed 26.44% of growth against the collection of October FY17-18 under all the heads.
Tahir Khattak further said the IDP stayed surplus with Rs57.544million extra revenue against the allocated target of Customs Duty (CD) during October FY17-18. The IDP received Rs319.184million as CD against the earmarked revenue target of Rs261.64million, he added.
He told CT that the IDP earned extra revenue of Rs57.45million under the head of CD against the revenue collection of corresponding October FY16-17. The IDP got Rs261.731million under the head of CD during October FY16-17.
According to the Deputy Collector, the IDP generated Rs22.605million as CD against the allocated revenue collection target of Rs271.60million during September FY17-18 while it received extra revenue of Rs232.605million of CD. The IDP got Rs290million under the same head during the same period of last FY16-17. Because of holidays during said month, the IDP showed some shortfall against the earmarked target.
The Federal Board of Revenue has allocated Rs277million revenue collection target to the IDP as Customs Duty for the month of November FY17-18 while it collected Rs20.281million of revenue of CD during initial five days of November FY17-18.