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Tax officials' apathy: SRB fails to recover taxes
Updated 54 minutes ago
KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly Public Accounts Committee was told Tuesday that Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) had failed in properly recovering various taxes including of land tax, Abiana, agriculture income tax, land revenue and other receipts in districts of the province during last three years - mainly because tax recovery officials never considered it a priority.
A senior member of the SRB Shahzar Shamoon conceded the failure of his department during the PAC meeting convened to discuss the audit reports of Sindh Board of Revenue for the year 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 with Chairman PAC Jam Tamachi Unnar in the chair.
The meeting was attended among others by PAC members Mujadid Isran and Moin Pirzada, Director General Audit Sindh Ghulam Akbar Soho, officials from Board of Revenue and deputy commissioners from Thatta, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Mitiari, Kashmore and other districts.
A total 27 Paras of aforementioned three years had to be discussed as deputy commissioners of various districts could only recover a meager amount in taxes of Rs 2.344 million against a total amount of Rs 316.22 million, but all Paras were deferred for two months as DCs in the meeting were not prepared to face the grilling over non recovery of taxes.
Chairman PAC expressed his displeasure on non-recovery of massive outstanding dues and said the competent district coordination officers must be appointed in districts, who could discharge their responsibilities in proper manner. He said DCOs must notify outside their office about government properties in their districts so that people would know if any attempt to encroach the land was carried out.
He told the meeting that no one among the concerned officials came to him to collect land tax for last two years, adding that he himself approached the relevant official later on.
SRB official suggested that tax could easily be recovered if negligent 'Tapedars' were put behind bars for even a single day. He told that no land in the district could be encroached upon without the connivance of respective DCO of a district.
Jam Tamachi said the lack of interest among officials concerned, besides vested interests of influential people were main factors hampering the recovery of taxes. Why one would pay taxes when revenue board officials never bothering to collect it, he asked.
He said it was not an arduous task to recover outstanding dues and moaned that such negligence was tarnishing the image of the government.
He stressed the need to maintain record of complaints against defaulters for assistance in legal action against them. He asked the DCs present in the meeting to discuss the tax recovery matter with administrative high-ups of their respective districts to hammer out its solution. He also suggested them to present these audit reports to MPA and MNA of their districts to apprise them of such massive irregularities.
DG Audit Sindh Ghulam Akbar asked the SRB official to show him letters, if any, was sent to senior government authorities regarding non- recovery of taxes.
Tax officials apathy: SRB fails to recover taxes
Updated 54 minutes ago
KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly Public Accounts Committee was told Tuesday that Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) had failed in properly recovering various taxes including of land tax, Abiana, agriculture income tax, land revenue and other receipts in districts of the province during last three years - mainly because tax recovery officials never considered it a priority.
A senior member of the SRB Shahzar Shamoon conceded the failure of his department during the PAC meeting convened to discuss the audit reports of Sindh Board of Revenue for the year 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 with Chairman PAC Jam Tamachi Unnar in the chair.
The meeting was attended among others by PAC members Mujadid Isran and Moin Pirzada, Director General Audit Sindh Ghulam Akbar Soho, officials from Board of Revenue and deputy commissioners from Thatta, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Mitiari, Kashmore and other districts.
A total 27 Paras of aforementioned three years had to be discussed as deputy commissioners of various districts could only recover a meager amount in taxes of Rs 2.344 million against a total amount of Rs 316.22 million, but all Paras were deferred for two months as DCs in the meeting were not prepared to face the grilling over non recovery of taxes.
Chairman PAC expressed his displeasure on non-recovery of massive outstanding dues and said the competent district coordination officers must be appointed in districts, who could discharge their responsibilities in proper manner. He said DCOs must notify outside their office about government properties in their districts so that people would know if any attempt to encroach the land was carried out.
He told the meeting that no one among the concerned officials came to him to collect land tax for last two years, adding that he himself approached the relevant official later on.
SRB official suggested that tax could easily be recovered if negligent 'Tapedars' were put behind bars for even a single day. He told that no land in the district could be encroached upon without the connivance of respective DCO of a district.
Jam Tamachi said the lack of interest among officials concerned, besides vested interests of influential people were main factors hampering the recovery of taxes. Why one would pay taxes when revenue board officials never bothering to collect it, he asked.
He said it was not an arduous task to recover outstanding dues and moaned that such negligence was tarnishing the image of the government.
He stressed the need to maintain record of complaints against defaulters for assistance in legal action against them. He asked the DCs present in the meeting to discuss the tax recovery matter with administrative high-ups of their respective districts to hammer out its solution. He also suggested them to present these audit reports to MPA and MNA of their districts to apprise them of such massive irregularities.
DG Audit Sindh Ghulam Akbar asked the SRB official to show him letters, if any, was sent to senior government authorities regarding non- recovery of taxes.
Tax officials apathy: SRB fails to recover taxes
