PESHAWAR: The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has formed the Policy Making Council (PMC) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA). The first meeting of the PMC was held under the chairmanship of the chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak at CM House.
The council, headed by the chief minister, was comprised of the provincial ministers and secretaries for finance, law and parliamentary affairs and excise and taxation departments, chief secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two ex-civil servants, presidents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and women chambers of commerce, and the director general of KPRA who will also act as secretary of the PMC.
While briefing the meeting, Secretary Excise and Taxation Israr Ahmed said that council will act as a policy making body for KPRA and formulate policy guidelines regarding tax administration, planning, reforms, budget and other matters and the policies formulated so shall be binding upon KPRA under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Act 2013.
He informed that KPRA has started collection of sales tax on services and broadened tax net by including 37 more services under KP sales tax net. The number of the services providers who were brought under the sales tax net by KPRA has risen to 1354 at the end of the last fiscal year from 933 tax payers who were registered up to 30th June, 2014, said Israr Ahmed adding that financial contribution of the new tax payers remained 931 million rupees since July 2014.
Obtaining approval of KPRA (withholding) Regulations from PMC, the Secretary Excise told that in order to launch new tax payers and withholding rules, KPRA has completed the first phase of the tax payers’ education and various measures were taken to create public awareness about establishment of KPRA and KP sales tax on services.
Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on this occasion appreciated KPRA for making the sales tax system functional and directed KPRA to make all out efforts for achieving the tax collection targets fixed for recently started financial year. He said that the measures proposed by PMC for covering the shortfall in the sales tax collection during the transitional period must be fully implemented for which the required support would be extended to KPRA, he assured.
