PESHAWAR, Jan 29: The NWFP continued to record dismal performance in agriculture income tax collection as the provincial tax collection  authorities could in the first six months recover only 21 per cent of the target set for the current financial year, sources told Dawn on Monday.

According to official sources, the province collected Rs13.9 million on account of land tax and agriculture income tax during the first half of the 2001-02 financial year, making some 21.5 per cent of the annual target and 43 per cent of the proportionate target for the period.

Of the amount, said the sources, the province received Rs14 million under the land tax head and Rs500,000 agriculture income tax.

Under the Land Tax and Agriculture Income Tax Ordinance, 2001,  the provincial government separated land and the agriculture income taxes to expand the tax net.

However, said the sources, the move appeared to have proved counter-productive as the NWFP was not likely to achieve what it had during the last year of chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan’s government, when the province had collected over Rs70 million.

“The new piece of law could not yield the desired results as the province continued to show poor performance under the agriculture income tax head in line with the past several years,” said senior government official sources.

The province recorded a gap of over Rs16 million under the land tax component, under which Rs31 million should have been received by the end of the first six months of the financial year.

The revenue raised makes some 45 per cent of the target on proportionate basis on Dec 31, 2001. Agriculture income tax recoveries also remained much less than desired.

The provincial government has introduced the law to net the big land holdings, but the recovery position reflects that it could not deliver the results. The agriculture income tax base that had been attained under the previous legislation was, apparently, lost.

The province received over Rs500,000 as the agriculture income tax.

The revenue raised makes some 10 per cent of the annual target and 22 per cent of the amount the province had eyed to raise during first six months of the financial year.