RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) has given awards to five withholding agents on the basis of their outstanding performance vis-a-vis revenue collection and also presented mementos to top taxpayers.

An ‘appreciation ceremony’ was held at the KPRA headquarters to which the representatives of best-performing taxpayers were invited. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Minister for Finance Taimur Khan Jhagra was the chief guest on the occasion.

Members of the KPRA’s policy board, including provincial ministers, secretaries and private members, also attended the ceremony. The award-winning taxpayers included businesses run by individuals and associations of persons and companies from both the corporate and non-corporate sectors.

Certificates of appreciation were also given to the KPRA’s best-performing officers during the financial year under review, who enabled the organisation to achieve its targets.

To recognise their role in the provincial economy, the KPRA presented awards to the top taxpayers in the financial year 2021-22. The authority presented mementos to 51 taxpayers selected from 10 different sectors and also awarded the top five withholding agents on the basis of their revenue contribution and their overall compliance level.

In his remarks KPRA Director General Muhammad Kabir Afridi welcomed the guests, and praised the role of the taxpayers and the team of KPRA in enabling the authority to achieve its revenue and non-revenue targets.

“Our aim is to make our province self-reliant so that our government has enough funds for its developmental schemes,” Kabir Afridi said, adding that the number of registered taxpayers has exceeded 19,000, which shows the trust of the taxpayers on the KPRA and the provincial government.

Taimur Jhagra also appreciated the efforts of the KPRA team and the role of the taxpayers, adding that the authority’s annual growth rate was increasing more rapidly as compared to other provinces.

“This year we are hopeful to take our revenue collection to Rs40 billion,” he said and added that the taxpayers’ satisfaction had reached 99 percent in the taxpayers’ perception survey, which was excellent and showed their confidence in KPRA.

The aim of the event was to recognise the contribution of those who were in the tax net and deserved to be recognised, he added.