Pakistan Customs collects Rs191bln duties in July-November

KARACHI: Pakistan Customs pulled in Rs191 billion on account of duty collection from seaports during the first five months of the current fiscal year, recording a 1.6 percent growth year-on-year, as imports came back on the recovery path after economic reopening, sources said on Thursday.

Aggregate collection of customs duty from three major collectorates located at sea ports – Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Appraisement East, MCC Appraisement West and MCC Port Qasim – amounted to Rs188 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The collectorates collect around 72 percent of the customs duty at the national level.

The sources said imports witnessed growth during the period as the government made a sane decision of refraining itself from re-imposing lockdown during the second phase of coronavirus pandemic.

Imports increased 1.3 percent to $19.4 billion in the July-November period compared with $19.2 billion in the same period of the last year.

The government decided not to halt business and manufacturing activities amid rising numbers of COVID cases. Amid coronavirus-led lockdown, import containers were seen piling up at the ports with the importers not furnishing essential documents to get their consignments cleared due to lack of goods transportation.

Trade deficit narrowed 27.1 percent to $23.1 billion in the last fiscal year of 2019/20, but the reduction was mainly caused by suppressing imports rather than export sector’s recovery. The government resorted to curtail imports and mobilise foreign funds to improve balance of payments position since it took over in August 2018.

However, the government eased import regulations to help export-oriented sector smoothly run import-led manufacturing in the country.

The collection of customs duty at national level was almost flat at Rs264 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year. That was compared with Rs263.4 billion in the corresponding months of the last year.

The MCC Port Qasim witnessed 10.6 percent decline in duty collection. The collectorate collected Rs76 billion as customs duty during July-November compared with Rs85 billion in the same period of the last year. However, MCC Appraisement East and MCC Appraisement West recorded growth of 12.3 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively for the period under review.

The State Bank of Pakistan said the real GDP contracted 0.4 percent during the last fiscal year due to the disastrous effects of coronavirus on business activities.