Sindh demands ST collection rights

KARACHI: A Sindh government adviser on Tuesday demanded of the federal government to grant provinces the control of collecting sales tax on goods, arguing the prevailing revenue shortfall was the federation's failure and not the federating units'.

“He (Imran Khan) is trying to conceal his (government’s) failure by blaming Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of failing to meet its targets owing to 18th amendment,” Murtaza Wahab, adviser to chief minister Sindh for Information, Law and Anti-corruption said reacting to Prime Minister’s statement.

The provincial advisor in his statement said the reason given by the Prime Minister was illogical and ridiculous, adding that it exposed the lack of his knowledge.

Wahab said 18th amendment was a landmark achievement for provincial autonomy, which ended the long-standing deprivation among the smaller provinces. “Pakistan Peoples’ Party would stand against any attempt to roll back the 18th amendment,” he said.

The adviser said it was the responsibility of the federal government to achieve revenue targets not provinces’ and added that Sindh government had met its revenue targets with six percent growth in current financial year.

He further said Sindh was at the forefront in revenue generation, while federation as well other three provincial governments were legging behind. “Sindh has collected Rs127 billion in current financial year,” Wahab said.

He went on to say that federal government had completely failed and showed its inability in tax recovery.

The adviser said that keeping the performance of Sindh government on revenue collection, the federal government should hand over the power of collecting sales tax on goods to the province.