PESHAWAR: No tax shall be levied without previous publication of the tax proposals, hearing to the public objections and approval of the respective local council.
This was stated by Provincial Finance Minister Muzzafar Advocate on Tuesday in a meeting with the Provincial Finance Commission at Peshawar on the issue of tax collection by rural governments.
The rules laid down in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Local Government Act 2013 about Taxation and Tax collection encourages the officials to generate more revenue through public property interests, he said.
The local government can reduce, suspend or abolish a tax, so they are empowered to establish a procedure through which tax can be implemented and collected in a easy way through the local government, he added.
He further said that the provincial government shall have powers to direct a local government to levy any tax, increase or reduce any such tax or the assessment thereof and suspend or abolish the levy of any tax in the best public interests.
He said all the arrears of the taxes, rents and other moneys claimable by a local government under this act by distress and sale of the movable property belonging to the person concerned or by attachment and sale of the immovable property belonging to them, must be paid to the government.
As the tax collected annually transferred to the provincial finance commission which in turn approves development schemes for the areas with addition to grants, he added. A model has been set by the provincial government which enables a local government official to site compounds, lands and shops to increase the tax resources of local governments by rents and taxes.
The scope of inland revenue to function finance commission through local government’s taxation and tax collection increases with advancement in check on cross border trade during the past years, he proclaimed.
The local government finance commission gives recommendation to the government on the amount of grant for local governments out of the consolidated fund in a financial year in addition to the grant in lieu of Octroi and Zilla tax.
Provided that in addition to the establishment charges budgeted for the devolved functions and transfers in lieu of Octroi and Zilla taxes, the development grant for local governments shall be so determined that it is not less than 30 % of the total development budget of the province in the respective year; Provided that the development grant for village councils shall be determined on the basis of population and tax collected from the areas in intervals, he commented.
