‘Sindh’s revenue collection performance surpassed other provinces, FBR’

Claiming that revenue collection in Sindh has been the best among the provinces, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that the Sindh Revenue Board’s performance has been so superior that it surpassed the tax collection efficiency of the Federal Board of Revenue.

Shah said this on Thursday as he responded to written and oral queries of lawmakers of the Sindh Assembly during question hour of the session pertaining to the Finance Department as Murad Ali Shah also holds the additional portfolio of Finance Department.

According to the CM, Sindh had generated Rs38.8 billion in revenue in six months from July 1 to December 31, 2017, which increased to Rs44.3 billion in the corresponding period of 2018. He said that in Punjab, the revenue collection last year [2017] was Rs48 billion, which decreased to Rs44 billion [in 2018]; in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the revenue collection this year [2018] decreased by Rs5 billion to Rs4.4 billion as compared to last year [2017], while the revenue collection by Balochistan was Rs3.02 billion last year that decreased to Rs2.8 billion this year.

Shah said that with the exception of Sindh, the revenue collection performance of the rest of the provinces was being counted in negative. The revenue collection performance of Punjab is -8.6 per cent, of KP is -10 per cent and Balochistan is -7.2 per cent.

He declared that tax collections by the SRB had well surpassed its revenue collection targets. The CM further said that during the last three years, the Sindh government did not avail any loan from the State Bank of Pakistan, nor did it avail the overdraft facility during that time.

He informed the house that the process of merger between Sindh Bank and Summit Bank had been stopped for the time being as the Supreme Court had taken notice of the issue as legal formalities were being completed in this regard. He added that the State Bank had asked the provincial authorities concerned to complete the merger process between the two banks at the earliest.

Opposition MPA of the Grand Democratic Alliance Dr Hasnain Mirza asked the question as to when the audit would take place of Rs4.20 billion disbursed under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

Shah responded that the audit of this sum would be undertaken by the Auditor General of Pakistan. He said that sometime back the Sindh government during Ramzan had disbursed Rs2,000 ration allowance to each recipient of the BISP in Sindh though the province received the list of beneficiaries of the programme after much delay. He said whatever extra support the Sindh government had extended to the recipients of BISP was completely indiscriminate as it didn’t take into account the political inclination or affiliation of any particular beneficiary.