MARDAN, May 12: Provincial Excise and Taxation Minister Fazl-i-Rabbani has directed the excise and taxation officers (ETOs) to expedite efforts for recovering taxes so that the set targets could be achieved well in time and the additional money thus collected used for the welfare of the people.

This he said while chairing a meeting of all the ETOs of the province at Akbar Bagh in Shehbaz Garhi here on Wednesday. Excise Department Secretary Khalid Hussain Gilani also addressed the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the recovery situation at the district level and the districts which could not show better performance were directed to make up for the deficiencies and try to achieve the targets during the current month.

The excise secretary asked the ETOs to furnish daily and weekly progress reports to his office so that the recovery position could be supervised properly. He also urged them to pinpoint those officials who showed lethargy in performing their duty so that disciplinary action could be taken against them.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Fazl-i-Rabbani appreciated the overall performance of the department, saying that about Rs120 million increase had been recorded in the revenue collection as compared to the previous year.

He also appreciated the best performance of Mardan ETO Haji Shafee and his staff for not only achieving the targets but recovering an additional Rs0.6 million. He hoped that other districts would follow suit to improve the tax recovery position.