PESHAWAR, Feb 10: Tax collection machinery of the province continued putting poor show as a negligible amount of Rs2.4m was raised through local rate and ushr levies during the first six months of the current financial year, according to official sources.

The money raised under the two heads makes only 9 per cent of the total annual target the province has to achieve under the two heads collectively during the current fiscal year. The collective target under the two heads comes to around Rs28.5m, according to official sources.

Against the annual target of Rs15m under the head of local rate the province raised about Rs2m during the first six months of the current fiscal year making only 13.3 per cent of the total annual target.

Whereas, out of the total annual target of Rs13.5m the province raised a total of Rs475,000 during the July-December period of the current fiscal, which makes 23.75 per cent of the annual target.

Well placed official sources apprehended that by posting negligible recoveries during the first half of the current fiscal the province was not likely to be in a position to meet the annual target. “In such a situation recoveries are not likely to end up at a position near to the annual target,” said the sources.

The recoveries recorded during the first six months of the current fiscal year under ushr and local rate heads appear to be much less than the amount the province had raised separately under the two heads during the first seven months of the last financial year, i.e. 2001-02.

During the July-January period of the 2001-02 financial year the province raised a sum of Rs1.3m under the head of ushr, apparently, Rs850,000 more than the amount the province raised during the July-Dec period of the current fiscal year.

Similarly, the province had raised a sum of Rs2.9m under the local rate head during the first seven months of the current financial year against an amount of Rs2m raised during the July-Dec period of the current financial year.