KARACHI, July 16: The customs authorities collected Rs6.822 billion towards duty on import of 19,232 vehicles during 2007-08 compared to Rs6.945 billion collected on import of 30,631 vehicles in the previous year.

According to official figures the cut in number of imported vehicles did not affect the duty collection because a higher number of new vehicles were imported thereby fetching more revenue.

The government last year reduced the age of vehicles from five to three years, which could be imported under different schemes.

The import of new vehicles during 2007-08 was much higher at 2,599 compared to 1,490 a year ago. The value these vehicles stood at 2.225 billion and they fetched customs duty to the tune of Rs1.586 billion.Another glaring change noticed in the pattern of import of vehicles is that there had been sharp fall in import under Transfer of Residence (TR) scheme. During the period under only 198 vehicles, mostly of 1,000cc were imported under the scheme compared to 5241 units earlier.

Similarly, there is a drastic fall in import of vehicles under Personal Baggage scheme, which stood at 12,354 in 2007-08 as against 15,059 units imported in 2006-07.

During the period 21,835 non-commercial vehicles at a cost of Rs8.327 billion were imported and they fetched around Rs5.265 billion in customs duty.

There was drastic fall in import of commercial vehicles at 4,071 units as against 8,796 imported last year. Import of trucks and dumpers registered a sharp decline to 407 and 874 units, respectively. Last year, 3,881 units of trucks and 279 of dumpers were imported. Similarly, import of vans also made a steep fall at 27 from 1,343 units last year.