High grades, salaries for taxmen

PESHAWAR, April 16: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has restructured the Directorate General Excise and Taxation by upgrading all the existing senior positions by one step. "The finance department, which sanctions creation of new posts or upgrading the existing ones, has notified upgradation of existing positions of Directorate General Excise and Taxation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under its restructuring plan," an official told Dawn here on Saturday. The excise and taxation department (E&TD), the province's prime tax collecting agency, had formulated a plan for restructuring the Directorate General Excise and Taxation for improving tax administration system. As per the plan, the post of director general has been upgraded from grade 19 to 20, the post of director from grade 18 to 19, eight posts of excise and taxation officers (ETOs) from grade 17 to 18 and eight posts of assistant excise and taxation officers (AETOs) from grade 16 to 17. According to the finance department notification, the government would spend Rs1.726 million on salaries and regular allowances payable against those posts, further burdening the provincial kitty, the official added. The E&TD at provincial level had sanctioned strength of 162 posts from grade 1 to 21. Officials against these posts were working both at secretariat and directorate level for which the provincial government had allocated Rs57.946 million in the current financial year 2010-11. Of the total allocation, an amount of Rs39.298 million will go to the salaries component, leaving Rs18.648 million for other operational costs. A senior official at E&TD told Dawn that upgradation of the existing posts would cause a wave of promotions in the department, where officers were supposed to work in a grade longer than those inducted in other cadres of executive services. "All the existing officers will get promoted to the next grades, leaving space for their juniors," he said. The E&TD was part of the Board of Revenue till 1997. It remained attached with the finance department from 1997 to 2000 and in Nov 2000 it was given the status of a separate department. The official said that government also intended to set up circle offices at divisional level so that collection of different taxes by the district field offices could be coordinated. At the moment, he said, all the district offices of E&TD reported to E&TD secretary. "After establishment of these regional level offices, district offices will report to them and also facilitate the administration to expend the tax net by having better outreach," he added The E&TD collects 10 different kinds of provincial taxes and duties, including Urban Immovable Property (UIP) Tax, Motor Vehicles Token Tax, Motor Vehicle Registration Fee, Entertainment Duty, Tax on Trade, Calling and Profession, Provincial Excise on Sprits, Tax on Motor Vehicle Dealers and Real Estate Agents, Registration of Videos Cassette Shops, Tobacco Development Cess and Hotel Bed Tax.