PESHAWAR, March 13: NWFP is all set to miss the annual Rs3.6 billion provincial own receipts (PORs) target for the financial year 2002-03, making it difficult for the MMA-led provincial government to ensure achievement of the benchmarks set under a loan agreement with the World Bank, according to official sources.
The last NWFP government had obtained $90 million loan from the World Bank’s structural adjustment credit (SAC) facility on the basis of a three-year rollover multi-sectoral reforms programme, which also binds the province to raise its user charges, internal tax and non-tax receipts by 40 per cent till the financial year 2004-05.
In its Medium Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF) submitted to the World Bank, NWFP is supposed to raise a total of Rs3.66 billion from its tax and non-tax receipts during the financial year 2002-03 — the first year of the MTBF.
The province, said the sources, raised around Rs1.3 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal year, recording a shortfall of well over Rs500 million than the amount the provincial tax collection machinery should have ended up during this period on proportionate basis.
None of the provincial tax and non-tax receipts head, said the sources, performed satisfactorily.
In the absence of an extraordinary performance on the part of tax collection agencies of the province, it appeared to be really difficult for the provincial government to achieve or record PORs anything near to the annual target of Rs3.6 billion, said the sources.
The province did not show any improvement in its revenue heads of abiana, agriculture income tax and land tax, stamp duties, mutation fee and other heads of receipts which form the mainstay of the PORs.
Against annual target of Rs50 million under both the components of the agriculture income tax and land tax, the province raised around Rs16.5 million during the first half of the current fiscal year making hardly 33 per cent of the target.
Similarly, against the annual target of Rs313 million on account of abiana (water rate), the province raised Rs40 million during the first half of the current fiscal leaving no chance for the provincial tax collection machinery to meet the target — particularly keeping in view its performance during the last few years.
Recoveries under the head of local rate stood at Rs2 million at the close of the first half of the current fiscal against an annual target of Rs15 million. Whereas, the province raised a total of Rs475,000 by the close of the first six months of the current fiscal against annual target of Rs13.5 million under the head of ushr.