ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The value of dutiable imports increased by 12.05 per cent during the first half of the current financial year.

Official figures made available to Dawn showed that the total value of dutiable imports stood at Rs210.721 billion during the July-December period of the current financial year against the dutiable imports worth Rs188.056 billion over the corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of Rs22.665 billion.

The raise in the dutiable imports resulted in increase of customs duty by 53.2 per cent to Rs27.660 billion this year against Rs18.06 billion over the corresponding period of last year.

Similarly, sales tax at import stage went up by 15 per cent to Rs51.2 billion against Rs44.9 billion of the last year.

A similar increase was witnessed in the collection of withholding tax collected at import stage.

On the other hand, the value of total imports during the same period this year stood at Rs355.526 billion against Rs322.268 billion of last year, showing an increase of 10.31 per cent.

This showed that the value of duty free imports on which duty was not collected increased by 7.89 per cent to Rs144.805 billion during the July-December period of current financial year against Rs134.212 billion of the last year.

The tax authorities were expecting around 30 to 40 per cent increase in the dutiable imports during the second half of the current financial year following the initiation of economic activities in the wake of elections in the country.