PESHAWAR, Aug 24: The NWFP government has constituted two different committees to prescribe remedies for revamping tax collecting machinery and rationalising the Urban Immovable Property (UIP) tax rating on commercial buildings, officials said.

One committee will prepare proposals for restructuring the Excise and Taxation Department (E&TD), which is the prime tax-collecting agency responsible for collecting almost 10 types of different provincial taxes. The committee will be headed by the NWFP additional chief secretary.Officials at E&TD told Dawn that main focus of the committee would be on giving feedback to the government on strengthening its institutional capacity.

Under the World Bank sponsored Provincial Reform Programme (PRP-II), the government was bound to widen its tax base for which it was pursuing a reform agenda, they said, adding that the restructuring of the E&TD was part of the strategy.

At present, they said, there was no proper service structure for the staffers of the E&TD. They said only one post of director general in grade 19 and two deputy directors in grade 18 were not sufficient for career progress of a number of taxation officers, who usually got one step promotions at the verge of their retirement.

The officials said the committee would prepare a proper service structure for the E&TD staffers with an emphasis on upgradation of existing posts of the department. For this purpose, the committee would also study the service structure of three other provinces, they maintained.

The other committee will rationalise the existing ratios of the UIP tax on commercial buildings of Peshawar.

The E&TD secretary, NWFP, will be the head of the committee. Secretaries of Industries, Local Government and Rural Development, Finance, District Nazim, the E&TD director general and two representatives of traders will be members of the committee.

The officials said the committee had been constituted on the demands of traders.

The committee would look into the rates of UIP tax and submit its report within a period of one month to the chief secretary for further action, the officials added.