PESHAWAR, June 5: The NWFP Board of Revenue (BoR) has come very close to achieving its targets for the financial year 2004-05, according to official sources. The board had aimed at collecting Rs283 million under the head of land revenue, Rs249 million on account of stamp duties, Rs40 million as registration fee and Rs65 million under the components of land tax and agriculture income tax for the financial year 2004-05.

Official record of the NWFP Accountant-General’s office shows that the province has collected Rs560 million under the heads of land revenue, stamp duties, registration fee and land tax and agriculture tax for the financial year 2004-05 during the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

This is 88 per cent of the total annual target of Rs637 million under the four categories, leaving the board with the task of raising another Rs77 million in the last three months of the current fiscal year to achieve the target it had set for the four categories.

Stamp duties and land revenue contributed the major portion to the provincial government’s revenue, the former contributing Rs232 million against the annual target of Rs249 million during the July-March period of the current financial year, achieving 93 per cent of the annual target.

The Board recovered Rs261 million under the head of land revenue out of an annual recovery target of Rs283 million, 92 per cent of the annual target.

Officials said that the boom in real estate business had helped the provincial government improve its revenue position under the head of stamp duties.

“The more the people transferred properties during the last one year or so the more the government earned,” said a tax official.

The province, according to the sources, had raised Rs220 million in stamp duties during the last financial year. Hence, recoveries made during the first nine months of the current fiscal year showed significant improvement.

The recoveries recorded under the head of land revenue this time round also reflected a significant improvement compared to the total collections recorded last year.

A total collection of Rs250 million on account of land revenue had been recorded during the 2003-04 financial year whereas the province has raised more than Rs261 million during the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

Improvement recorded under these two heads, according to the sources, would make the provincial government set next year’s target under the two heads at a higher level.

“The departments concerned are already working on that,” said an official.

In line with its commitment with the World Bank the provincial government is supposed to set the stamp duty target for the 2005-06 financial year at Rs281 million whereas in case of land revenue it is committed to setting the target at Rs319 million.