Public Account Committee (PAC) of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has directed the Excise and Taxation (E&T) Department to prepare district-wise details of outstanding dues on annual basis from the financial year 2000-2001 onwards on account of different taxes.
Public Accounts Committee issued these directives while reviewing audit objections regarding Excise & Taxation Department for the financial year 2005-06 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa House, Abbottabad. Speaker Kiramatullah Khan chaired the meeting.
The taxes collected by the excise and taxation department are included property, motor vehicle, professional and hotel tax as well as surcharge on commercial buildings. The committee directed the department to take strict measures for recovery of outstanding taxes' dues of about 39 million rupees and submit compliance report to PAC by 30th September 2010 along with annual details of amounts recoverable in each district.
The Director General Audit KPK Javed Iqbal had suggested to seeking annual receipt reports from the department so as to enable the committee to fix responsibility for ignoring recovery of huge amounts from the tax evaders.
Members of the committee Abdul Akbar Khan, Pir Mohammad Sabir Shah, Mohammad Zamin Khan, Mukhtiar Ali Shah, Abdul Shakur Khan and Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha, Secretary Assembly Amanullah Khan, Additional Secretary Amjad Khan and concerned officers of E&T and finance departments attended the meeting.
The meeting discussed at length a total of 13 revenue receipt audit objections raised against the department for the year 2005-06 including an amount of Rs 5.790 million on account of 15 percent Provincial Government share of property tax collected by Cantonment Boards in four cities of the Province which included Peshawar, Nowshera, Abbottabad and Mardan. The committee referred this issue as well to the audit committee and asked the department to take necessary steps for reconciliation and recovery of the provincial share.
Discussing an audit para regarding recovery of hotel tax amounting to Rs 5.326 million from 87 hotels of the province, mostly situated in Mansehra district, the committee found that the concerned district officers did not initiate any penal action against such defaulters.
The committee, therefore, ordered an inquiry into this lapse to fix responsibility and also directed the department to ensure early recovery of the amount and also show reasons for ignoring collection of the amount that was outstanding since long. The committee was told that a total amount of Rs 38.99 million was still recoverable from the defaulters regarding different provincial taxes. Out of this amount a huge receipts of Rs 31.77 millions were payable only by the property owners while the remaining Rs 7.22 million were outstanding against motor vehicle's owners as well as other provincial governments.
Speaking at the meeting the Chairman Karamatullah Khan directed the department to clear audit backlog regarding receipts of the government and said that PAC cannot afford over burdening of the audit objections. He asked the department to devise a foolproof and efficient system for collecting taxes in a smooth manner and devise mechanism to facilitate the taxpayers. The Speaker on this occasion expressed his astonishment and concern over non-availability of any modern or automated system of receipts and record maintenance and directed that details of all outstanding dues should be made available to the tax payers on the web site of the department and all the record of the department should also be computerised in order to ensure transparency and accuracy in the accounts.
Member of the committee Abdul Akbar Khan, who chaired second session of the meeting, took serious notice of non-recovery of the amount payable by the practitioners of different professions and asked the department to recover the amount through the concerned professional bodies of such defaulters. He also sought details of the defaulting doctors, lawyers, engineers, laboratories, advertisement agencies and real estate dealers etc.
The Secretary E&T who defended his department against the audit objections told that E&T had made Rs 90 million more recoveries than the fixed target during the last financial year. He apprised the committee of his department's success about transfer of powers from the Board of Revenue to E&T department for collection of receipts under the Land Revenue Act 1967.
He, however, complained that Peshawar Development Authority was not co-operating with E&T department for the recovery of property tax dues as, he added, the authority was requested time and again to ensure clearance of E&T dues at the time of transferring of any immovable properties.
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