PESHAWAR: The Ministry of State and Frontier Regions (Safron) has been urged to impose five per cent levy on imports in the tribal region (which is exempted from income tax).
Presently, federal excise duty (FED) is charged in Fata and customs duty is collected at the Torkham customs station. A significant amount of international trade is being carried out at Torkham. The total volume of import and export is 0.62 per cent and 0.11 per cent of the country’s total trade respectively.
The revenue authority collected Rs179.1 million customs duty and Rs2.8 billion FED from the region during fiscal year 2013-14.
The recommendation show that initially, a five per cent levy on imports at Torkham border should be imposed as the annual imports at the station are around Rs 25 billion. The practice can help the revenue authority generate over Rs1 billion.