PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai said on Tuesday that provincial excise and taxation department managed to collect Rs3.4 billion against a target of Rs3.3 billion during the last fiscal.
Addressing a press conference regarding the annual performance of excise department, he said that the department was the backbone of the province’s economy. He said that during financial year 2018-19, performance of the department reached new heights as the staff worked with utmost dedication to achieve the targets assigned.
Excise Secretary Syed Zafar Ali Shah and Director General Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah were also present on the occasion.
The minister said that the department showed exceptional performance by achieving 103 per cent recovery of taxes in the last fiscal. He said that the highest target achieved by department in the past was 92 per cent. However, in the last fiscal, the department exceeded its target.
Mr Yousafzai said that after passage of 18th Amendment, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa became the first province by passing its own anti-narcotics bill under which the department was about to raise its narcotics investigation cells.
He said that a memorandum of understanding was already signed between excise department and INL-Pakistan for capacity building of the proposed narcotics control wing of the department. He said that in the initial phase, INL-Pakistan would assist excise department in providing vehicles, telecommunication and capacity building of the staff.
The minister said that the department made substantial progress in the seizure of narcotics during 2018-19 where value of seized drugs was about Rs1.8 billion in the international market.
He said that excise department recently introduced one-day vehicle registration. He said that registration books were printed and delivered to the vehicle owners on the same day to facilitate them.
Syed Zafar Ali Shah said on the occasion that excise department also excelled in other areas including regularising unregistered vehicles, removal of unauthorised and unofficial number plates, seizure and confiscation of illegal vehicles, narcotics and allied illegal activities with major benefit in seizure of around 200 illegal vehicles of about Rs200 million.
He said that initiatives like introduction of smart card, digitisation of property tax and home delivery of number plates were being taken to facilitate people.
Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2019
