PESHAWAR, Dec 2: The NWFP government is lagging behind the provincial own receipts (PORs) target after recording a shortfall of about Rs120 million at the close of the first quarter of the current fiscal year, according to officials.

The recently-compiled figures showed that out of the total target of Rs3752 million for the 2003-04 financial year, the province was required to raise over Rs938 million on proportionate basis at the close of the first three months of the current financial year.

However, the province missed the first three months’ receipts target by about Rs120 million. The provincial government raised slightly over Rs815 million during the July-September period of the current fiscal year as majority of the revenue generating departments failed to raise the required amount. The receipts were about 13 per cent of the annual PORs target for the financial year 2003-04.

Except for the provincial Board of Revenue, education department and industries department, no other department could meet the proportionate target, one of the senior government functionaries told Dawn. The departments that failed to meet the PORs target include irrigation, home and tribal affairs, communication and works, agriculture, health, excise and taxation and forest department.

“All of them have been asked to explain their position for failing to meet the target and provincial Finance Minister Siraj-ul-Haq will shortly hold a meeting to review the progress made by these departments,” said a well-placed official.

“The provincial government,” said the official “is required to improve its tax and non-tax receipts and user charges by 40 per cent by the end of the financial year 2004-05, which is the last year of the implementation of the Provincial Reforms Programme financed by the World Bank.”

If the receipts’ position did not improve in the second quarter then achievement of the target would become a daunting task, causing much more difficulties for the province to meet the World Bank’s conditions viz-a-viz improving user charges and provincial receipts under the tax and non-tax heads, said sources.

None of the provincial governments succeeded in meeting the PORs target during the last one decade due mainly to unimpressive performance on the part of the tax collectors and wrong estimation by the provincial finance department, the official said.

The receipts recorded at the close of the first quarter was Rs26 million more than the amount the last provincial government had recorded in the same period of 2002-03. Against the over Rs815 million PORs recorded this time round, an amount of Rs792 million had been raised in the corresponding period of the financial year 2002-03.

“Increase in the annual revenue target is one of the reasons which helped the province record improvement in its revenue as compared to the last financial year,” said the official, adding that in view of this fact the province was set to surpass the figure of PORs generated last financial year, though it might not meet the current year’s target.