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Karachi, Wed October 4, 2017

PESHAWAR

IRFAN BAHADUR

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he Model Customs Collectorate Peshawar collected Rs1828.5million revenue against the target of Rs1803.8million allocated by the Federal Board of Revenue for the Mirst quarter of Financial Year 2017-18. So collectorate stands surplus with Rs25million collection.

The Customs sources on Friday told Customs Today that the Collectorate

generated net duties equal to Rs5077.05million against the target of Rs4416.37million in the Mirst quarter from July to September of current FY 207-18. The Customs House Peshawar in previous Minancial year was able to show the collection of all taxes equal to Rs1592million in the Mirst quarter from July to September while it did net duty of Rs4062.80million during previous Year.

The sources added that the performance of Peshawar Customs has improved more this year during the current FY

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despite hard economic environment.

The customs sources further said the good performance of the Peshawar Collectorate is due to uniform policies applied by Collector Customs Gul Rahman at the MCC Peshawar due to which Peshawar Customs surpassed the targeted revenue collection during the current FY. Collector Customs Gul Rahman when asked about the achievement of target by the MCC Peshawar, the Collector termed the achievement an excellent teamwork of the Peshawar Collectorate during the current FY.

Collector Gul Rahman stays surplus with Rs25 million collection

Multan Customs generates Rs20.15m from auction of vehicles & goods

FBR generates Rs753b against desired target of Rs778b during 1Q

US Customs and B orde r patrol rescue s family in Pue rto R ico

Multan Customs seizes four non duty paid vehicles of Rs11m in three days

The MCC Peshawar collected Rs1828.5m revenue against the target | See pAge 01 |

Directorate of Customs I&I Multan Range OďŹƒce generated Rs20.15 m | See pAge 02 |

The FBR has collected Rs 753 billion during first Quarter July-September | See pAge 05 |

US Customs and Border helicopter provided medical aid to three people | See pAge 07 |

Customs I&I has started crackdown against smuggled vehicles | See pAge 08 |

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Senate body to be apprised about privatisation plan Wednesday, October 4, 2017

National

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee would be apprised about the future privatization plan of public sector enterprises and measures so far taken to enhance their working capacities.

The Senate Standing Committee on Privatization and Statistics would meet here on October 3rd to discuss different agenda items regarding the privatization of public sector enterprises. The meeting would be held here with Senator Mohsin Aziz in the chair, according to notification issued by the Senate Secretariat on Monday.

multan customs generates Rs20.15m from auction of vehicles & goods

ASo confiscates non duty paid blanket, mazda truck FAISALABAD

NAeem SHeIkH

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he Customs Anti Smuggling Organization (ASO) has seized 9,000 kilograms of foreign origin blankets along with Mazda truck worth Rs96,00,000 involving customs duty and taxes to the tune of Rs15,50,000. Sources told Customs Today, that an ASO team intercepted a Mazda truck bearing registration no: LEI-7549 near Gattwala Toll Plaza Sheikhupura Road and recovered foreign origin blanket. The ASO team asked the accused named Ali Raza son of Muhammad Shfiq to show documents regarding its legal import but he failed to provide any relevant documents. After his failure customs authorities seized the truck loaded with blanket under Section 168 of Import and Export Control Act 1950 punishable under Section 156 (1) 90 (i) of the Customs Act 1969. The ASO team, comprising Superintendent Tanveer Raza Naqvi, Inspector Faizi Raza, Shah Nawaz and other were part of the raiding team.

Customs ASO forwarded the case to Customs Adjudication for further proceedings.

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HYDERABAD

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irectorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Multan Range OfMice generated Rs20.15 million from the auction of conMiscated vehicles and miscellaneous goods.

Customs Intelligence and Inves-

tigation conducted public auction of conMiscated vehicles and miscellaneous goods lying at the State Warehouse. Customs Intelligence and Investigation conducted auction of vehicle in their ofMice near Khanewal Road, Raja Pur Multan.

Customs I&I offered 16 foreign origin impounded vehicles of different models and brands in the auction including Suzuki Pick Up, Hino Ranger truck, Toyota Fielders, Suzuki Sierra jeep, Toyota Vitz, Toy-

ota Alto, Toyota Corolla X, Toyota Premio, Toyota Prado jeep, Mitsubishi Inter Cooler and others.

All presented vehicles were sold out successfully in Rs17.10 million during auction of Customs Intelligence. Successful auction-goers have deposited the one fourth amount of the entire on the spot for the endorsement of their bid. These conMiscated vehicles were impounded by Customs Intelligence and Investigation Multan OfMice teams in their dif-

ferent crack downs carried out in the jurisdiction. Customs Intelligence and Investigation has also presented seven various lots of miscellaneous including 40,000 liters of HSD ,foreign origin LTV tyres, TV tyres , Iron scrap, Heavy duty generators and others. As many as two lots of tyres and High Speed Diesel were auctioned in Rs3.05 million during the auction. Remaining Mive presented lots of miscellaneous goods were rejected due to fewer bids in the auction.

Quetta customs gears up eorts to abort smuggling attempts T

HYDERABAD

wAQAR AHmeD ANSARI www.customsbulletin.com

he Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigations Quetta expedited its efforts to foil the attempts of smuggling. The collectorate seized smuggling items worth Rs11.2million in 25 days of the current month.

Sources told reporter that conMiscated goods included plastic powder, Iranian juices, commercial

molding machines, commercial generators, Iranian grease and break oil , hashish, plastic Dana, computer accessories, Iranian diesel, electronics and other items.

The sources told CT that Director Customs Intelligence and Investigation Quetta Irfan Javed received a tip-off that some smugglers are trying to smuggle computer accessories and different kinds of laptop systems, portable hard drives, DVDs, quantity of heavy speakers and USBs from Quetta into different

cities. He immediately constituted a raiding team. The team enhanced the vigilance in the Mastung area and started a search operation on vehicles. During the search, the team intercepted a passenger bus with registration No: LHA-654 which was heading out of city.

During the checking, the custom team recovered 200 portable hard drives 160 GBs, 30 non-duty-paid laptops, 200 pieces of DVd players, 50 sets of heavy speakers and a big quantity of 16 GB USBs.

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he Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 753 billion during first Quarter (July-September) Financial Year FY2017-18 against the preferred target of Rs 778 billion.

“The FBR’s provisional tax collection stands at Rs 753 billion during the first quarter of the FY17-18 and it is expected that the collection will further go up by few billion rupees when the revenue collection figures will be finalized within the first two weeks of upcoming month,” said sources.

The sources told CT that the FBR’s target for first quarter stood at 19.6 % of total fixed target of Rs4013billion and hoped that there would be no much difference between the actual collection and envisaged target.

Chairman Tariq Pasha pointed out in his informal conversation at the Parliament House that the number of return-filers was three times more this year than the same period of

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

last tax year.

However the official sources said that the FBR’s provisional collection fetched Rs 305 billion in September 2017. Its collection stood at Rs over Rs 448 billion during first two months (July-August) of 2017-18 against Rs 371 billion in the same period of 2016-17, reflecting an increase of Rs 77 billion. The revenue collection in August 2017 stood at Rs237billion and collection in July 2017 was Rs 211billion. Overall the FBR has crossed Rs448billion during the first two months (JulyAugust) of 2017-18.

The revenue collection for

September 2017 showed that the collection is gaining momentum, but the FBR would have to make concerted efforts for achieving its desired annual target of Rs4013billion for the ongoing fiscal year.

The FBR will have to collect Rs3260billion in remaining nine months (Oct-June) period of the current fiscal in order to materialize the fixed target of Rs4013billion for the ongoing financial year. For achieving this huge target requires effective enforcement and broadening of narrowed tax base in weeks and months ahead and the FBR established special zones with the assigned task to get the desired results. But intentions are not enough for realizing dreams into reality and FBR’s top bosses will have to deliver in an electioneering year when there will be more pressures from political masters as well as changing of minister incharge because of installation of caretaker setup ahead of upcoming general elections anytime in the next few months.

tands ction s e l l o c rter ax st qua r ional t s fi i v e o h r t p that uring FBR’s ected llion d i p b x e 3 s 5 i by few at Rs 7 and it go up 17-18 r Y e F h e t r h of t ill fu enue ction w he rev e t l l n o e c h ed the sw finaliz rupee e n b l o l i i l l w ng bi gures pcomi fi u f n o o i s t k collec o wee first tw e urces h t aid so s within ,” h t mon

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eDItoRIAL

economy in global perspective

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ccording to the latest Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, Pakistan’s competitiveness has gained seven places to reach 115th position, showing improvement in various sectors of the economy in one year.The report also suggests improvement in competitiveness in many countries in South Asia. Bhutan rose up by 15 places to secure 82th position and Nepal by 10 places to stand at 88th.

Switzerland acquired the status of the most competitive economy in the world while the United States and Singapore came second and third in the global context. Pakistan has gained seven places across all pillars of competitiveness. India is down by one place to stand at 40th position and Sri Lanka has lost 14 places to acquire 85th position mainly due to corruption and ineďŹƒciency of the government bureaucracy which is hindering progress. According to the report, Pakistan has shown improvement in 82 indices but lost previous positions in 20 indices this year.

Among the 114 global competitiveness indicators the country retained its position on 12 indices. Unfortunately, corruption has been indicated as the principal factor in the way of doing business in Pakistan. Next to corruption are the irrational tax rates and political instability, which are arresting the progress. The forum had highlighted similar problems in its report last year, but no improvement has been made on this account this year too. Pakistan improved 21 ranks on the institutions pillar to stand at 90 from 111thposition last year.The country secured its ranking on Infrastructure pillar from 116 to 110 and improved 10 ranks to stands at 106th on the macroeconomic stability.Pakistan has lost one rankunder the head of health and primary education among 137 countries, but improved from 123 to 120 inhigher education.It secured 107th position in goods market efficiency, 128thin labour market efficiency,96thin financial market sophistication,111th in technological readiness and secured 28th position on the pillar of market size.According to a representative of the World Economic Forum, Pakistan has factor driven economy, which depends on improving its institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education.

Financial indiscipline F

LAHORE

DR AFtAB AFZAL

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inancial discipline is the fulcrum of economy and when it is ignored, the economy goes into disarray. It is still debatable why the country could not devise a mechanism to manage its Minances, trade, investment and the overall economy. Why the ofMicial machinery is unable to establish coordination among its various wings and who the people responsible for economic policies are. In the absence of an effective accountability mechanism, the corrupt government ofMicials and public representatives walk free after incurring heavy losses on the national economy. There is an

army of technocrats, policymakers and parasites who depend heavily on the national reserves, but their utility is limited and ability is questionable. Living on perks and collecting hefty salaries, most of the ofMicial breed is useless for the Mifth largest nation of the world. The only option left for the nation is to seek loans, further loans and heavy loans on unspeciMied conditions. A lion share of the national income is likely to go on debt servicing in coming years and still the Minancial discipline is absent in the government dictionary.

According to reports, the World Bank has suspended a budgetary support programme due to deteriorating macroeconomic indicators in the country, but will con-

tinue to Minance the development projects.The bank has decided this after receiving a letter of comfort from the International Monetary Fund and the move shows how the world lending agencies are in coordination with each other. The fund is already monitoring Minancial situation of the country on the basis of macroeconomic indicators. The economists believe the government will have to enter into another loan programme with International Monetary Fund and the situation reMlects inherent vulnerabilities in the national economy. Reports suggest the foreign currency reserves of the country have started depleting due to current account deMicit and major chunk of the national income al-

ready goes to the debt servicing.

The government, which was proud of foreign exchange reserves for touching the psychological barrier of $22 billion, stand at $14.7billion. In the wake of $4billion forward booking, the net reserves will nearly stay at $10billion which are hardly enough to meet the import bill requirements of the next three months.There is only one option for the Minancial managers and that is to boost revenue within the country not on the basis of unreasonable taxes and tariffs, but on the basis of industrial production. Still the government has failed to improve macroeconomic balances and streamline the tax collection system.

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Australia consumer confidence falls slightly Wednesday October 4, 2017

World

CANBERRA: Consumer confidence has eased slightly in the past week but views towards the Australian economy’s future remain downbeat. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index fell 0.6% in the past week to 114.1, with negative views towards future economic conditions offset by a 3.3% lift in optimism in the time to buy a major household item index, AAP reported.

Australia & New Zealand Bank senior economist Felicity Emmett said consumer confidence is hovering around its long-term average, buoyed by ongoing strength in the labor market and optimism around current conditions. But, while views towards current economic conditions remained virtually unchanged, up just 0.1%, confidence around future economic conditions had slipped 6.5%, she said.

US customs and Border patrol rescues family in puerto Rico

Danish govt. seeks cuts in capital gains tax COPENHAGEN

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TAIPEI

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he crew of a US Customs and Border helicopter provided medical aid to three people who signaled for assistance by painting the word “help” on the roof of their home in Puerto Rico.

The scope of Hurricane Maria’s devastation in Puerto Rico is so broad, and the relief effort so concentrated in San Juan, that many people from outside the capital say they’ve received little to no help.

The recovery in the first week since the storm has largely been a do-ityourself affair. People collect water from wells and streams, clear roads and repair their own homes when they’re not waiting in day-long lines for gasoline and diesel. For most, the only visible sign of authority are police officers directing traffic, a critical service because

UAe begins registering taxpayers for VAt he United Arab Emirates Federal Tax Authority on Sep, 2017, opened its online portal for businesses to register for valueadded tax. The UAE is to introduce value-added tax from January 1, 2018, at a five percent rate. Businesses are required to register to collect and remit value-added tax if at any time during the past twelve months the value of their taxable supplies exceeded the mandatory registration threshold of AED375,000 (USD102,000), or if the entity anticipates that they will exceed the threshold within the next 30 days. Taxpayers can register voluntarily if the total value of their taxable supplies exceeded AED187,500, or if the business expects to exceed that threshold within the next 30 days. –CB Report

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traffic lights are out across the island. The storm tore up the island on Sept. 20, killing at least 16 people and leaving nearly all 3.4 million people in Puerto Rico without power and most without water.

Meanwhile, US Customs and Border Protection agents busted a marijuana smuggling operation that involved a boat that was docked in the Marina del Rey area, a sheriff’s lieu-

tenant said Sunday. The operation was being handled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in the Marina, according to sheriff’s Lt. Steve Tousey of the Marina sheriff’s station. In a photo taken at the scene and sent to City News Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are shown with stacked blocks of marijuana that were taken off the boat.

Royal Bank of canada using blockchain for US/canada payments

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oyal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) is experimenting with blockchain to help move payments between its US and Canadian banks, one of the bank’s senior executives told Reuters on Thursday. Martin Wildberger, RBC’s executive vice president for innovation and technology, said use of distributed ledger technology, or DLT, would improve the speed of payments, reduce complexity and lower costs. The bank developed the

system over the past six months at an RBC blockchain technology center in Toronto, deploying software developed by a cross-industry open-source blockchain consortium known as Hyperledger. The technology was integrated into RBC’s existing systems several weeks ago as a “shadow” to RBC’s primary ledger, letting the bank monitor payments in real-time as they travel between the United States and Canada, he said. –CB Report

he Danish government on proposed cuts in capital gains tax to encourage people to invest in stocks some of the 850 billion Danish crowns ($137 billion) currently sitting idle on bank accounts. Under the proposal, investors will be able to earn up to 100,000 Danish crowns per year on stock investments and be taxed at 27 percent. Currently, the maximum tax rate of 42 percent sets in at 51,900 crowns.

The move is part of the rightleaning minority government’s overall aim to remedy labour shortages by cutting taxes. Year-on-year growth in Denmark’s economy rose to 2.6 percent in the Mirst quarter, and many Mirms complain about a shortage of qualiMied workers.

On Tuesday, it announced plans

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to cut income tax and levies on cars and household services by 23 billion Danish crowns per year up to 2025, but faces tense budget negotiations with opposition parties including pro-welfare and anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DF) it relies on to stay in power.

The proposed cut in capital gains tax comes in addition to an idea Mloated last week when the government said it wants to copy a Swedish and Norwegian model by allowing each individual to deposit up to 500,000 crowns that can be used for investing in stocks and pay 1.25 percent annually in tax on the deposit.

Meanwhile, AP Moller-Maersk is to sell its oil and gas assets to French Mirm Total for $7.45 billion, a decision the matriarch of the founding family described as “difMicult, but right”. The agreement follows an announcement late last year by Maersk that it would split its operations into two entities, one focussed on energy (Maersk Oil), the other on container shipping, ports and logistics (Maersk Line).

Uk, Belarus sign tax treaty

elarus and the UK signed a tax treaty. The signing ceremony took place at Belarus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The new agreement is not yet in force, A 1985 tax treaty between the UK and the USSR continues to apply to Belarus and Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, British consumers have been dipping further into their savings amid a squeeze from rising prices and falling real wages, Migures show, as growth in personal bank deposits fell to the slowest annual rate since the height of the Minancial crisis. Annual growth in personal deposits with high street

banks fell to 2.2% in August, in the weakest month since May 2009, according to Migures published by banking trade body UK Finance.

There was also about £1bn withdrawn from cash Isa accounts, with tax changes allowing up to £1,000 of interest to be earned tax free. The trade body said: “It seems households are saving a bit less each month, rather than borrowing more, as growth in personal deposits has slowed recently, alongside a slowdown in growth of consumer credit borrowing.” Annual growth in credit card borrowing was at 5% in August. –CB Report

Australia’s Beach energy snares origin gas assets for $1.25b

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CANBERRA

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ustralia’s Beach Energy (BPT.AX) has agreed to buy gas assets from Origin Energy Ltd (ORG.AX) for $1.25 billion in a deal that will more than double the oil and gas producer’s output and step up its exposure to a tight en-

ergy market in eastern Australia.

The deal will triple Beach’s oil and gas reserves, transforming a company valued at A$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) that has long been focused on one basin in central Australia to give it a foothold across Australia and New Zealand, onshore and offshore. At the same time, it has locked in gas sales to Origin from the Lattice Energy business it is ac-

quiring at higher prices than it averaged in the year to June 2017, serving a market that is likely to see gas demand soar for power plants.

Origin, Australia’s top energy retailer, spun off the gas assets into a separate arm last year, aiming to sell or Mloat the business to help it cut debt which it had taken on to build the Australia PaciMic LNG project.

Beach Chief Executive Matt Kay said

that besides expanding the company’s output and reserves, the deal offered certainty of cashMlow from the gas sales agreements, which stretch out to 2033. “The combined business is a cash cow which is robust to the downside,” Kay told investors on a conference call. Beach plans to fund the acquisition through a A$301 million entitlement offer to shareholders and new debt facilities.

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Income tax return filing surges by 230% in FY 2017 ISLAMABAD: The income tax return filing for tax year 2017 has increased by 230 percent due to awareness campaign launched by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The number of returns received up to September, 2017 increased to178,945 compared with 54,086 returns received till the same date in September 2016. This was revealed by FBR Chairman Tariq Pasha during a meeting with Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar. The FBR chairman also briefed the finance minister regarding the awareness campaign being run by FBR to educate and convince taxpayers to fulfil their legal tax obligations.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

CUSTOMS BULLETIN

multan customs seizes four non duty paid vehicles of Rs11 million in three days MULTAN ImRAN ALI

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irectorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation has started crackdown against smuggled vehicles and impounded four luxury vehicles worth Rs11 million in three days of special operation.

Sources told Customs Today that Director General Customs Intelligence and Investigation has directed anti smuggling teams to take stern action against foreign origin smuggled vehicles. Deputy Director Customs Intelligence and Investigation Multan Khial Muhammad Khan formed a special team to impound non-customs paid vehicles. Customs Intelligence assigned task to Senior Intelligence OfMicer Muhammad Haq Nawaz, Inspector Umer along with Muhammad Shakeelur Rehman to initiate action against smuggled vehicles.

Customs Intelligence deputed their staff and enhanced the monitoring of the suspected areas to impound smuggled vehicles. Field Intelligence Unit of Customs conducted raid in various routes against smuggled vehicles.

The special team raided different areas and impounded Mark X, Toyota

Corolla Axio, Cherokee Grand, and truck. Sources told that these four im-

pounded vehicles are non-customs paid. Customs Intelligence seized

these vehicles under Customs Act 1969. Seizure reports of these vehi-

cles will be forwarded to Customs Adjudication very soon for their trial.

SBp keeps monetary rate unchanged at 5.75 percent KARACHI

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he State Bank of Pakistan has kept that policy rate unchanged at 5.75 percent. The announcement to this effect was made in the Monetary Policy Statement issued It said that the Macroeconomic environment remains conducive to growth without impacting headline inMlation. Favorable

initial estimates of major crops, a healthy growth in credit to private sector and growing productive imports all indicate solid gains in the real sector.

On the back of adequate food supplies and stable international commodity prices, headline inMlation decelerated in the Mirst two months of Miscal year 2018 (FY18).

The pursuit of higher economic growth however poses growing challenges partly enunciated at the start of FY18. These include those arising from pressures on the external front and an expansionary Miscal policy, the statement added.

Expounding the real sector, full year LSM data indicates a healthy and broad-based growth of 5.7 percent for FY17 as compared to its earlier estimates of 4.9 percent.

In fact, LSM for July 2017 posted a growth of 13.0 percent.

Delving deeper into FY18, manufacturing activity is expected to beneMit from higher development spending, growing investments in CPEC-related projects, improvement in security condition, and the continued trend of stable and low cost of borrowing.

Furthermore, the SBP staement went on, an upbeat indus-

trial outlook and a promising assessment of major crops are going to have positive spillovers on the services sector. Based on current projections of agriculture sector growth, GDP growth is likely to reach the annual target of 6.0 percent for FY18 leading to an improved capacity to accommodate rising domestic demand.

Turning to inMlation, average CPI inMlation eased to 3.2 percent in Jul-Aug FY18 compared to 3.8 percent during the same period last year. With comfortable wheat and sugar stocks, no major disruption is expected from supply

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side in the coming months of FY18.

However, the core inflation (non-food-non-energy), reflecting the underlying demand pressures in the economy, continues to maintain its higher level of 5.6 percent in the initial two months of the fiscal year. This is also visible from IBA-SBP’s Consumer Confidence Survey of September 2017, which shows a modest rise in expected inflation during the next six months. Thus, with these demand and supply side dynamics, average CPI inflation is expected to remain well below FY18 target of 6.0 percent.