There is an extraordinary growth of 87.14 percent in collection of customs duty in 2016-17 when compared to previous year's target. The target of customs duty was set at Rs 5.9 billion and collection amassed to Rs 6 billion. On the pattern of last fiscal year, this is the highest ever collected revenue by Rawalpindi/Islamabad Customs Collectorate. Taking into account the remarkable performance, tax authorities have appreciated Collector of Customs Islamabad, Dr Arsalan Subutageen and his team on their outstanding performance during 2016-17 and 2015-16.
The strict monitoring and vigilance at Islamabad Benazir Bhutto International Airport under the supervision of Dr Arsalan Subutageen has almost eliminated smuggling from airport. Dr Arsalan Subutageen will join a National Management Course (NMC) at Lahore.
Tax authorities acknowledged that Dr Arsalan is one of the honest customs officials, who not only disciplined entire customs team in Islamabad but also facilitated taxpayers, importers and incoming passengers at airport through different facilitative measures. He has been a prominent figure as far as welfare of the employees is concerned.
Sources said that the MCC Islamabad was facing an uphill task to achieve the ambitious revenue collection target for 2016-17. However, during second half of 2016-17, the revenue collection witnessed a major jump due to anti-smuggling and enforcement activities within the territorial jurisdiction of the federal capital.
The authorities were close to the target through a well-planned strategy, recovery plan and enforcement measures by the customs officials headed by Collector MCC Islamabad. The success story disclosed that the Collectorate's persistent efforts to recover unpaid amount of duties and taxes and speedy clearance of imported consignments at port and airport also contributed in revenue collection of the said Collectorate.
The anti-smuggling activities played a key role in seizure of luxury vehicles and heroin and miscellaneous consignments which resulted in contribution of revenue in the national exchequer. Another important factor which contributed in surpassing the assigned targets was the speedy finalisation of pending cases at ports.
The pending consignments have been cleared on priority basis to expedite clearance process. Data revealed that positive trend has been observed in collection of customs duty, sales tax, federal excise duty (FED) and withholding tax by MCC Islamabad during current fiscal year. MCC Islamabad is committed for not only achieving its annual target of customs duty, sales tax and FED but also made serious efforts to surpass with a huge margin of all federal taxes collection at import stage during 2016-17.
According to sources, MCC Islamabad has intensified efforts to increase revenue collection through a well-planned strategy, recovery plan and enforcement measures by the customs officials headed by Collector MCC Islamabad. Besides anti-smuggling actions, enforcement/recovery, the speedy clearance of imported consignments at port and airport will also contribute in revenue collection of the said Collectorate. The pending consignments have been cleared on priority basis to expedite clearance process. The MCC Islamabad has also given priority to the auction of goods in a transparent manner. At the same time, facilitation of passengers has also been given priority at the airports.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017