Peshawar             -          After successfully collecting Rs.17.2 billion taxes in the last fiscal year Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) is all set to achieve the target of Rs.20 billion taxes in the current year. 

Presiding over monthly progress review meeting of KPRA on Tuesday, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Finance Taimur Jhagra appreciated the efforts of KPRA staff for achieving the revenue targets in the previous year and directed them to prepare a comprehensive plan for meeting the current year’s target of Rs.20 billion, a KPRA press release said.  

Director General KPRA Fayyaz Ali Shah along with officials of KPRA including advisors, directors, collectors and KPRA regional offices heads attended the meeting. 

The minister was given a detailed presentation highlighting the KPRA’s performance in terms of revenue collection, registration of new taxpayers and month-wise growth rate compared to the previous years. The authority crossed over 11,500 registration figures in the year 2019-20 and collected Rs.17.2 billion despite the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the overall economy of the province. 

Before Covid-19 lockdown, the authority was showing an average 73% monthly growth rate and after the coronavirus outbreak the monthly average growth rate dropped to 15%. The lockdown affected almost all sectors from where the authority was collecting taxes. Only the construction and hospital sectors showed Rs.700 million revenue shortfall due to Covid-19. 

Taimur Jhagra said that KPRA earned a good name and trust in the market because it had always prioritized its taxpayers’ interests. “We have to build organizational structures over this principle and keep the interests of the tax-payers in our priorities,” the minister said. 

Director General KPRA Fayyaz Ali Shah said that KPRA was developing an application through which a tax-payer would easily submit the tax returns through their cell phone.