LAHORE     -    The second meeting of the cabinet ministerial committee on resource mo­bilization under the chair of Finance Minister Sardar Mohsin Khan Leghari was held in the committee room of the finance department on wednesday. Provincial Minister for Revenue Naw­abzada Mansoor Ahmad, Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Sardar Asif Nakai, Provincial Minister for Agri­culture Hussain Jahanian Gardezi, chief secretary, SMBR Zahid Akhtar Zaman, secretary finance, Special Secretary Mohammad Ali Randhawa, secretary excise and taxation, secretary health and representatives of the concerned departments attended. The meeting reviewed the tax and non-tax revenues collected in the current financial year. Special Secretary (Finance) Muham­mad Ali Randhawa briefed about the revenue collected by tax and non-tax departments and added that the Punjab Revenue Authority has collected more taxes than its set target till the month of October in the current fiscal year. The excise and taxation department collect­ed 41 percent of the budget estimates while the board of revenue collected 31 percent of the tax. 

In terms of non-tax, the mines and minerals department collected 38 per­cent of its revenue estimated in the budget, the police department col­lected 29percent and the irrigation department collected 13 percent. How­ever, the pace of revenue collection in the health department was very slow, while the education department man­aged to achieve 28 percent of its bud­get estimates. The 5-point agenda of the meeting included a discount on production index units on the transfer of land ownership rights to farmers on government lands in Cholistan, a revi­sion of the tax collection policy under the universal health insurance program and a concession in property tax to 14 union councils of Rawalpindi. The min­isterial committee proposed to give a 25 percent discount in production in­dex units for a fixed period to farmers on government lands in Cholistan for the transfer of ownership rights of land up to 12 hectares. A consensus was ex­pressed on the reduction of surcharge for those who paid full dues in the cur­rent financial year instead of conces­sion in property tax to 14 union coun­cils of Rawalpindi.

The finance minister directed the board of revenue to maintain transpar­ency in the transfer of lands in Cho­listan. It should be ensured that the concession given to farmers cultivating on government land is limited to them only, he emphasised. Health facilities in government hospitals should also be improved so that people prefer treat­ment in the public sector instead of the private sector. The timelines for filing health insurance claims for private and public sector hospitals should be iden­tified. The registration system of pri­vate hospitals should be made effective, said the provincial minister and man­dated all the government departments to inform the finance department about their monthly revenue plans