QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani has said that financial resources of the province will be enhanced from the current Rs15 billion to Rs40bn per annum in the next few years through good governance and making tax collecting machinery more effective.

Speaking at a ceremony to launch the online tax collection system of the Excise and Taxation Department on Tuesday, the chief minister said that steps were being taken to increase the performance of tax collecting institutions.

Founder of the ruling Balochistan Awami Party Syed Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, Adviser to the CM on Excise and Taxation Malik Naeem Bazai, provincial ministers and other officials concerned were present on the occasion.

Jam Kamal congratulated the Excise and Taxation Department for launching the online tax collecting system successfully.

“By introducing the new and modern tax collection system we wanted to secure the future of our coming generation making the province financially stable,” he said.

The chief minister said Balochistan was facing a financial crisis, so it needed reforms, restructuring of institutions, amendments in the existing rules and service structure.

He said the current pension bill in Balochistan was Rs23bn, which would go up to Rs200bn in the next five years.

“The annual income of Balochistan is Rs15bn and our goal is to increase it to Rs40bn in the next few years,” he added.

Adviser to the CM on Excise and Taxation Malik Naeem Bazai said the excise department was collecting six types of taxes for the provincial and federal governments in Balochistan. “Our tax collection target is more than Rs2bn for this year,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2019