PESHAWAR, Feb 1: Decentralization of revenue collection as part of the devolution of power plan, introduced on August 14 last, could not yield impressive results, at least, during the first five months of its implementation, according to official sources.

The provincial own receipts recorded shortfall during the first six months of the current financial year in comparison with the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The BoR, according to sources, not only missed the revenue collection target it was supposed to meet by the end of the first half of the current fiscal year, the recoveries recorded during that period appeared to be less than the amount it had received in the same period during the 2000-01 financial year.

The board, under registration fee, land tax, agriculture income tax, mutation fee, local rate, abiana, stamp duty and ushr, raised over Rs223.8m, falling short of the target by 59 per cent of the target for the first six months.

The money raised this time around, said the sources, appeared to be some Rs3m less than the total amount of Rs226.8m the Board had collected during the first half of the last financial year.

The provincial irrigation department, responsible for recovery of abiana (water rates), was blamed for the shortfall under this head, said the sources.

Similarly, the Board could not do any thing in terms of improving revenue under the heads of stamp duty, mutation fee and registration fee as collection under these heads depended on transactions.

However, despite having appointed revenue collectors in all the districts — in line with the devoluton of power plan — revenue collection under the head of agriculture income tax and land tax could not be improved.

Previously, revenue collection under the agriculture income tax head was the responsibility of the deputy commissioner in his area of jurisdiction in all the districts of the province.

“Despite the fact that the Senior Member, Board of Revenue issued numerous instructions to the district revenue collectors, recoveries position could not be improved,” said the sources.

In a meeting recently, the provincial governor, Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, said the sources, also took exception to the ‘poor’ recoveries position recorded by the BoR at the close of the first six months of the fiscal year.

Apart from BoR, the governor also came hard on the authorities of the excise and taxation department because of unsatisfactory revenue collection recorded by the excise department during the first half of the current fiscal year.

“The governor,” said the sources, “directed the authorities of both the entities to improve their recoveries during the next six months.”