QUETTA: The Model Customs Collectorate Quetta generated Rs18.38 billion during the 10 months of 2017-18, surpassing the Rs18.136bn annual target set for the entire fiscal year and registered significant growth by 49 per cent in revenue collection.

Collector Customs, Quetta, Ashraf Ali said here on Thursday, “We are ahead of the target given to the collectorate in revenue generation.”

He said that customs duty collection rose to Rs7.183 billion and sales tax to Rs7.809bn in the period under review, exceeding the respective annual targets of Rs5.336bn and Rs6.252bn.

Similarly. against the withholding/income tax and Federal Excise Duty targets of Rs2.087bn and Rs243m, Quetta Collectorate recorded Rs3.022bn and Rs295m inflows.

Ali said that unprecedented revenue collection has been made possible due to enhanced surveillance on clearances at Customs Stations Taftan, Chaman and NLC Dry Port Quetta, strengthening of the department’s en-route check posts and speedy disposal of seized goods and vehicles through auctions.

“An amount of Rs857m was realised on account of disposal of seized goods/vehicles in July-April 2017-18,” Ali continued. He further said that concerted anti-smuggling efforts led to impounding of 709 non-duty paid vehicles, seizure of more than 1.15m litres of smuggled Iranian diesel and other miscellaneous goods worth Rs1,489m (July-April) as compared to the Rs1,182m seizures during the last fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018