PESHAWAR, Aug 17: The NWFP government has been released funds less than its projected share from the total collection  of general sales tax on services, according to official sources.

Under its revised budgetary estimates for 2001-02 reflected under the 2002-03 budget document of the provincial government, the NWFP has been projected to receive Rs375.65 million from GST on services during the last fiscal year.

The revised budgetary estimates reflected a growth by over Rs108 million as initially the province had been projected to receive Rs266.7 million.

However, in original the province, the sources said, had been released over Rs300 million under the same head reflecting an increase of around Rs33 million over and above the initially projected share of Rs266.7 million. The amount released is around Rs75 million less than the revised budgetary estimates of Rs375.65 million.

The sources attributed the decrease in transfers under the head of GST on services to the Central Board of Revenue’s (CBR) wrong expectations from the fairly new levy - introduced two years back.

They said that the Board had anticipated an overwhelming improvement under GST on services - a provincial tax collected by the CBR and distributed among the provinces.

“The great expectations from the levy did not appear to be correct as the CBR could not raise what it had anticipated, though the new levy recorded substantial improvement in comparison with the 2000-01,” said the official sources.