KARACHI, Dec 2: The shipments of exports through Karachi Customs have registered a growth of up to 18 per cent during the first five months (July-Nov) for current fiscal to $3.076 billion as against $2.605 billion during the corresponding period last year.

The Collectorate of Customs (exports), Karachi, has simultaneously disbursed Rs5.747 billion as duty drawback to exporters during the first five months (July-Nov) for current fiscal.

A huge amount of Rs1.1 billion was also disbursed as duty drawback during November 2002.

The collectorate disposed of 97,663 duty drawback claims during this period (July-Nov) as against 86,256 claims disposed of during the corresponding period last fiscal. This indicates that 11,407 or 13 per cent more claims were disposed of this year as compared to the same period last year.

The officials of collectorate has announced that it has liquidated substantial number of duty drawback claims by putting extraordinary efforts and working daily beyond the normal office hours in order to expeditiously dispose of the duty drawback claims.

Besides disbursing the substantial amount of duty drawback to the exporters, the collectorate of exports has taken various measures to facilitate the exporters, and all the officers have been made accessible by exporter to get their problems resolved on the spot.