Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) has collected Rs 9.6 billion till May for the current financial year that will end on June 30. It was disclosed during the 7th meeting of the Policy Making Council (PMC) of KPRA, held under the chairmanship of KP Minister for Finance Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra here at Peshawar.
KP Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Sultan Muhammad Khan, Secretaries for Finance Shakeel Qadir Khan, Excise and Taxation Zafar Ali Shah, Legal Drafter Law Department Shagufta Naveed and KPRA Director General Tahir Orakzai, council private members and other concerned officials attended the meeting.
KPRA director general while giving the briefing to council said the revenue target for 2018-19 was Rs 15 billion and the authority had collected Rs 9.6 billion in the FY 2018-19 despite the suspension of mobile phone cards tax which was suspended by the Supreme Court last year. He said Rs 1.3 billion was expected to reach from the FBR in terms of input tax adjustment during the current fiscal year.
The KPRA head said the number of service providers registered with the authority had increased to 7,000 from 5,000 during the year 2018-19. The council thoroughly discussed the latest status of the decisions made at the last special meeting of the KPRA Policy Making Council. The council accorded approval for the appointment of assistant collectors for strengthening of Peshawar and Abbottabad regions.
PMC set Rs 20 billion target for the financial year 2019-20 and directed the authority to take concrete measures for meeting the same. The council also agreed upon the geographical and sectoral expansion of KPRA. It was also decided to post police personnel for assisting the Authority in its monitoring and enforcement functions in Peshawar and Abbottabad.
The finance minister appreciated the KPRA for making the sales tax system functional and directed it to make all-out efforts for achieving tax targets fixed for next fiscal year. The finance minister said he has personally worked with KPRA on tax reform programme. Their non-telecom revenue has gone up 49 percent versus 2018-19, which shows the capacity of authority to achieve Rs 20 billion next year. He further said the authority should increase its capacity for growing revenue target in coming years to collect Rs 50 billion from the service sector. Taimur Saleem Jhagra urged the KPRA to take consistent steps for tax collection as this money goes to the deprived people and develop all Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.