October 13, 2006	Friday	Ramazan 19, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: Overseas Pakistanis imported around 43,292 vehicles during the fiscal year 2005-06 under the transfer of residence, personal baggage and gift schemes as against 2,297 vehicles imported the previous year.

Official figures compiled by the Central Board of Revenue showed that the import of vehicles under the three schemes exhibited tremendous growth following the relaxation of procedures to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis in import of used and old cars.

Under the transfer of residence scheme, as many as 34,520 vehicles were imported during the year under review as against only 357 vehicles imported the previous year.

The vehicles imported under the personal baggage scheme stood at 5,818 units during as against 122 units. However, under the gift scheme the import of vehicles declined to 2,918 cars during the fiscal year 2005-06 as against 2,954 vehicles imported the previous year.

The vehicles including parts (Chapter 87) have been the top contributor to customs duty in the year under review. The import of vehicles and parts has increased significantly by around 49 per cent during the fiscal year 2005-06 mainly due to allowance of the import of old and used vehicles under SRO577, rates of duties and taxes and depreciation allowance.

Accordingly, the collection of customs duty (Chapter 87) has exhibited a substantial growth of 57.5 per cent. In absolute terms, the collection from vehicles has exceeded the previous year collection by about Rs14 billion as compared to the last year.

However, when the impact of imported vehicles in CBU condition under the transfer of residence, personal baggage, gift and other schemes were separated, this gain in revenue reduces to Rs7.3 billion, even though the number of imported CBU vehicles reflected an enormous growth of 448 per cent.