KPRA surpasses revenue collection target: official

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) has surpassed the revenue collection target for the fiscal year 2020-21 by collecting Rs20.8 billion against the revised upward target that signified 22 percent growth, said an official during an online session.

According to figures shared by tax and audit expert Muhammad Umair Zeb, the authority witnessed 22 percent growth on year basis by collecting Rs20.8 billion in the fiscal year 2020-21 compared to the corresponding fiscal year of Rs17 billion.

He said the growth witnessed 100 percent increase as compared to the figure of 2018-19, which was 10 billion.

Umair Zeb, who is a member of Tax Bar Association Peshawar, said the government had facilitated the taxpayers and adopted a collaborative approach that has worked.

He added that the performance, along with relief in tax rates, proved that the KP government’s policy of tax collection through facilitation and collaboration with all stakeholders was bearing fruit.

“The KPRA team have done away with the confrontational mindset and treated taxpayers as their partners in progress,” Muhammad Umair Zeb added.

He said the figures proved the success of the strategy, adding this was by far the highest collection by any provincial revenue authority in any financial year and the KPRA expected that this figure was expected to increase once the accounts were finalized.

The expert said KPRA Peshawar achieved 107 percent of its target in non-corporate and withholding, collecting Rs160 million more than the actual target given to it.

The South Region of KPRA was tasked with collecting Rs1.5 billion which it successfully achieved and even managed to exceed the target given to it.

Umair Zeb said the Mardan Region exceeded its annual target of collecting Rs800 million, while the Northern Region successfully collected Rs928 million.

The KPRA also exceeded the annual target given to it in the collection of Infrastructure Development Cess (IDC). The government had tasked KPRA to collect Rs1300 million in the IDC and it managed to collect Rs1410 million.

Quoting KPRA Director-General Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah, he said although the rates of sales tax on services were reduced through the Finance Act, 2020 to provide relief to the sectors affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the authority managed to counter the effects of the reduction and had shown an increase in revenue which had been acknowledged by Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra.