ISLAMABAD: Customs duty collection witnessed 14 per cent growth in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year from a year ago owing to additional revenue and administrative measures.

In absolute terms, customs collection reached Rs168.314 billion in July-March period this year as against Rs147.580 billion collected over the corresponding months of the last year.

This growth was witnessed despite paltry growth of 3.4pc in dutiable imports during the period.

The growth for dutiable imports was projected at 17pc for the year 2012-13.

Customs duty collection is even more than the projected target for the period under review.

The duty collection target for the period stood at Rs150.960 billion which was not only achieved but also surpassed.

This impressive growth in customs duty collection was achieved because of two administrative measures --vehicle amnesty scheme and administrative measures.

The amnesty scheme for the smuggled/non-duty paid vehicles was announced on March 5, 2013.

More than 51,000 vehicles were registered which yielded additional customs duty of Rs10bn for the government exchequer.

Of these, customs duty of Rs8.50bn was collected up to March 31.

The scheme was extended for another one week until April 6 which raised Rs1.50bn customs duty.

The total customs collection stood at Rs10bn because of tax amnesty scheme.

This unprecedented response to the car amnesty scheme helped customs officials to achieve easily its revenue collection target for the period under review.

Last year, customs authorities collected Rs32bn in duty and taxes on import of five year old cars through legal channels.

However, government reduced downward the age limit of cars to three years this year due to which import of used cars through legal channels also witnessed a decline.

A custom official told Dawn that the customs was facing two major problems that led to low revenue realization -- decline in dutiable imports and reduction in the age limit of used cars.

These two factors significantly contributed to low customs collections in the past nine months.

The official said that customs duty collected through administrative measures stood at Rs8.10bn until March 31.

“We are expecting Rs2.7bn in the next three months,” the official added.

According to the customs official, all available resources, including identical goods values, backgrounds inquires, online verifications and confirmation from countries of origin helped check authenticity of the declared values.

These efforts resulted in a huge improvement in duty collection.

Revenue was also generated through auction of confiscated goods, checking of misdeclaration and encashment of securities during the July-March period of the current fiscal year over last year.