ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: The Planning Commission has approved 55 development projects relating to water resources, energy, transport and communication, health and education, which would be completed at a cost of Rs122.5 billion.

The Central Development Working Party of the Planning Commission at a meeting held here on Saturday under the chairmanship of its Deputy Chairman Dr Akram Sheikh granted approval to 55 projects.

The meeting rejected two projects - the Northern Areas Terrestrial Link Microwave (Rs178.3 million) and Improving Sodic Soils and Ground-water Quality with Sulphurous Acid Generator (Rs90.7 million).

The meeting approved three major projects, including the Rs12.8 billion NWFP Road Development Sector and Sub-Regional Connectivity Project (National Highway component), the Rs11 billion NWFP Road Development Sector and Sub-Regional Connectivity Project (provincial component), and the Rs9.5 billion Pakistan Tax Administration Reform Project (TARP).

The purpose of the TARP project, sources said, was to achieve financial and administrative autonomy for the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) by having required legal changes.

The major objective of the project was to increase tax-to-GDP ratio at the rate of 0.2 per cent annually to increase the net revenue collection to about Rs880 billion annually from the Rs580 billion by eliminating revenue leakages.

Under this project, services of a specialized firm will be hired for technical assistance in the areas of process re-engineering, audit, risk-management, appeals and dispute resolution and taxpayers education facilities.

As a result of input from the firm and introduction of modern techniques, the government expects to increase revenue collection to over Rs880 billion approximately per annum after the completion of the project.

Also, the CBR will be restructured on functional lines and develop a well-trained and motivated workforce in order to develop and manage modern and efficient revenue administration.

The World Bank has offered to finance 75 per cent of the programme while the rest of the funding will be made available by the federal government. The programme is aimed at removing redundancies and re-engineering of business process and increasing voluntary compliance with tax laws through the application of concerted taxpayer education and facilitation programme.

Some of the other major projects approved by the meeting are: Balochistan middle-level education project (Rs2.2 billion), project for improvement of financial reporting and auditing (Rs2.1 billion), distribution rehabilitation by the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Rs4 billion), 6th secondary transmission line and grid stations by the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Rs6.1 billion), 6th secondary transmission line and grid stations of the Multan Electric Supply Company (Rs9.5 billion), 6th secondary transmission line and grid stations of the Gujranwala Electric Supply Company (Rs4.6 billion), and another similar project of Lesco (Rs5.9 billion).

All these development projects are related to education, devaluation and area development, good governance, science and technology, energy, environment, water resources, food and agriculture, health, transport and communication and physical and housing sectors.