ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) paid out Rs9.038 billion as duty drawback to exporters during the first five months of the current financial year against Rs8 billion during the same period last year, an increase of 12.9 per cent.

An official source said on Thursday that the amount of duty drawback still pending with the CBR during the July-November period was Rs2.2263 billion against the total duty drawback claims of 44,948.

Further collectorate wise break up showed, that the collectorate of Karachi (Exports) paid Rs5.749 billion; Lahore Rs888.13 million; Sialkot Rs1.162 billion; Hyderabad Rs87.361 million; Quetta Rs9.455 million; Multan Rs54.524 million; Faisalabad Rs826.929 million; Rawalpindi Rs77.240 million and Peshawar Rs183.410 million.

The statistics showed the Collectorate of Karachi has yet to clear drawback claims of 35,818 exporters; Lahore, 3,115; Sialkot, 1,760; Quetta, 232; Multan, 209; Faisalabad, 2,764; Rawalpindi, 776 and Peshawar, 274.