June 04, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

KARACHI, June 3: The Sindh government has proposed to set up a Sindh central revenue authority on the pattern of Federal Board of Revenue to improve and mobilise revenue collection mechanism on modern lines.

A government notification issued here said that a new revenue authority had been proposed to improve revenue collection and merge the Board of Revenue, Sindh, with the Excise and Taxation Department, which at present collects major revenue for the government.

To discuss the pros and cons of the proposal, a committee, headed by Minister for Revenue and Relief Murad Ali Shah has been set up. Its members include minister for excise and taxation, senior member, Board of Revenue and finance and excise secretaries.A sub-committee, comprising excise and taxation secretary, excise and taxation director- general, directors of motor vehicles and headquarters (excise and taxation) has also been formed to prepare recommendations.

The committee will invite suggestions from both tax experts in the public and private sector as well stakeholders to elicit their views.

The total provincial tax receipts are Rs27.526 billion, a major chunk of these receipts is contributed by the BoR Rs10.127 billion, excise and taxation Rs9.480 billion, home department Rs1.327 billion, finance Rs1.369 billion, education Rs500 million and agriculture Rs240 million.

Taxation experts have welcomed the move and said guidance should be obtained from the Federal Board of Revenue, which has organised its revenue collection on modern lines under tax administration reforms. They further said that the new authority would bring under one roof collection of revenue now made by half a dozen departments.

Giving an example they said that at present motor vehicle tax is collected by excise and taxation department while vehicle fitness fee and driving license fee is collected by the home department.

They further said that new authority should have separate members for each tax on the pattern of FBR, who should be responsible for achieving target of a particular tax.

The Sindh Board of Revenue, which also collects stamp duty and property registration fee, has been severely criticised in the past for not collecting agriculture income to its full potential. Apart from its senior member, most of the members lack expertise in tax matters. The target for income tax was fixed at Rs240 million in 2006-07 but the collections remained short of Rs16 million.