KARACHI: The Sindh Revenue Board has recovered Rs 55 billion up to May 30 and by the end of the current financial year, it would achieve the target of Rs 61 billion collections.
This was disclosed in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to review the treasury of the government for finalising the upcoming budget at the CM House. Those who attended the meeting include Senior Minister for Finance and Energy, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Board of Revenue Senior Member Rizwan Memon, ACS (Dev) Mohammad Waseem, Finance Secretary Sohail Rajput, Excise Secretary Haleem Shaikh, Member Board of Revenue, Zulfiqar Shah, and others.
The chief minister said that this is a very good collection and we would ensure to trickle down its benefits to the people of the province by creating job opportunities and carrying out development works.
Sindh Revenue Board In-charge Kazmi said that his organisation has collected Rs 6.1 billion in a single month of May, which is itself a record. The overall collection from July 2015 to May 30, 2016 comes to Rs 55 billion and by the end of financial year it would achieve collection target of Rs 61 billion, he added.
On this, the chief minister congratulated the Sindh Revenue Board and provincial finance minister for achieving the target and said that it is a great contribution of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government to strengthen financial position of the province by establishing a strong and effective organisation like SRB. It may be noted that in the fiscal year of 2015-16, the collection target was Rs 49 billion.
SBR Senior Member Rizwan Memon, while briefing the meeting said that it was given a target of Rs 16.6 billion against which they have recovered Rs 10 billion and by the end of the year, their collection would cross Rs 12 billion adding that there would be a shortfall of Rs 4.6 billion. Sindh Revenue Board Member Zulfiqar Shah informed the chief minister that he has cleared the backlog of 36,000 documents at microfilming. He said that now the entire process has been digitalised and next year the revenue recoveries would be increased by the people.
He said that the Excise and Taxation Department secretary was given a target of Rs 41.78 billion against which the department has recovered Rs 42 billion adding that the department would go much ahead of the target.
Senior Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah said that he has already requested all the departments to send their new SNE for allocation of the budget in the next financial year. He said that there would be plenty of new jobs in police, education, health, and irrigation and in some other departments.