PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) has generated Rs34billion in tax collections since its inception in 2013.
In the year 2016-17, KPRA contributed 56% to the total provincial tax revenue.
These views were stated by Director General KPRA Tahir Aurakzai during a multi-stakeholder’s awareness and sensitization session on the revenue generation by KPRA held at the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development.
While commenting on the performance of the authority, Tahir Aurakzai added that before the 18th amendment, there was no mechanism with the provincial governments to collect the GST taxes.
“The present government took initiative and established KPRA under the KP Finance Act 2013. This year till November, KPRA has generated Rs5billion taxes against its set target of Rs13.6billion”, he added.
The session was informed that the KPRA was successful in generating Rs6.2billion against its set target of Rs6billion in its first year of inception.
In 2014-15, the KPRA collected Rs6.2billion against Rs12billion target, in 2015-16 Rs7.27billion were collected against its target of Rs8billion whereas in 2016-17 Rs10.27billion were generated against its target of Rs10billion.
Currently efforts are underway for transparent recruitment of officers from BPS 1 to 19. According to KPRA Director HR Arshad Afridi, the authority is focusing on enhancing the credibility and transparency in the recruitment process for gaining public trust.
Moreover in the current year, donor support projects have also been initiated along with developing the organizational structure including establishment of directorates and collectorates.
Tahir Aurakzai added that the authority has the potential to generate between Rs 30-40 billion per year once the authority is fully functional adding that the KPRA is set to become the largest contributor in terms of adding revenue to the provincial kitty.
