PESHAWAR, May 27: The NWFP has recorded a massive shortfall in its recovery of stamp duty and mutation fee during the first 10 months of the current financial year, according to sources.

“The provincial government is lagging far behind the annual recovery targets it had set for the current financial year,” said senior government functionaries.

They said the shortfall in the stamp duty on one hand reflected recessionary trends, while on the other it clearly indicated that the target, under both the heads, had been fixed on the higher side.

“The provincial finance managers fixed the targets without looking at the ground realities as the sums anticipated to be raised through stamp duty and mutation fee were beyond the capacity the province has under these two receipts,” said an official.

At the close of the first 10 months of the 2001-02 fiscal year, the province raised about Rs114 million from stamp duty and Rs134 million through mutation fee leaving little chance for the government to meet the Rs200 million target it had set under both the heads, being Rs400 million collectively.

The money raised under the stamp duty head makes up 57 per cent of the annual Rs200 million target and 68 per cent of the Rs167 million target the province was eying to meet on a proportionate basis.

Similarly, the Rs134 million raised through mutation fee makes up 67 per cent of the Rs200 million target set under this head and 80 per cent of the Rs167 million the province was supposed to meet on a proportionate basis.

By raising Rs248 million collectively under the two heads during the first 10 months of the current financial year, the province needs to raise Rs152 million during the remaining two months—Rs86 million under the stamp duty head and Rs66 million under the mutation fee head.