LAHORE, May 22: The Punjab cannot afford any new tax and the only way to improve its finances is better collection of the already imposed taxes.

Punjab Finance Minister Tariq Hameed said on Wednesday said at Lahore Press Club where he had gone to address a “Meet the Press” programme.

“Since the provincial economy revolves around agriculture and its allied fields, the Punjab government is committed to facilitating farmers.”

For this purpose, he said, official machinery was maximum utilized to ensure stability of cash and food crops. It was due to the official promise of procuring all available wheat in the province that the price of crop had been hovering between Rs280 to Rs290. Otherwise, it could have slumped below the tolerable level. Same had been the case with sugarcane, he claimed. The government had only indicated a “suggested” price of Rs40 per 40kg for the crop but it ensured the same through every possible means. The other problem faced by the farmers was of delayed payments of sugarcane. The government took lead to get these payments cleared in time and around 92 per cent farmers had already been paid.

Cotton price, according to Mr Hameed, had also been stabilized because of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan’s effort to buy all leftover of the crop.

About tax collection, the minister said that it was well on target, except for agriculture tax. Continued drought had hit agriculture tax collection because around 44,000 villages were declared calamity-hit. Even otherwise, he said that agriculture tax contributes only 11 per cent of the total income; stamp duty provided 34 per cent of the same.

About development funds’ consumption, the minister said that 65 to 68 per cent of the allocated funds would be utilized during the current fiscal year. For lower consumption, he said that devolution hiccups hindered most of the consumption. These problems would be cleared by the next year. But all funds of the Khushal Pakistan would be utilized.

Mr Hameed also told newsmen that around Rs16.5 billion high interest rate debts of the province had been cleared during the year and this would bring a relief of Rs0.8 billion in the next year.