KARACHI, June 9: An inter-provincial meeting of excise and taxation ministers decided to meet every month to discuss and take steps for the solution of problems being faced by the people of the four provinces.

Sindh Minister for Excise and Taxation, Rauf Siddiqui, who was the host, said that the meeting discussed various issues, including collection of property tax, motor vehicle tax and excise duty.

He said that the NWFP Minister for Excise and Taxation, Fazle Rabi, conveyed the problems of the traders of his province. He said that undue delay in clearance of the loaded trucks in Sindh was perturbing the traders of the NWFP.

Mr Rauf told his counterpart of NWFP that he would examine the problem personally and assured him that minimum time would be consumed in clearing the loaded trucks coming here from NWFP.

He said that the meeting was being planned from the last six months to tackle inter-provincial problems related to excise and taxation.The minister stressed the need of establishing offices in other provinces on the pattern of Citizen Police Liaison Committee to help control theft of cars and their disposal there. "The car theft problem is being faced by every province and co-ordinated efforts in this regard is need of the hour," he said.

They also agreed to increase tax revenues in all provinces so that the amount should be utilized on the welfare of people.About the proposal of Road Usage Tax, the respective ministers of the NWFP and Balochistan expressed their reservation in the meeting. After mutual consultation, it was decided that a final decision in this regard would be taken after deliberations.

Punjab Minister of Excise and Taxation, Dr M Shafique Chaudhry, while talking to newsmen, said that the reason behind holding of this meeting was to sit together and redress the common problems.

He informed that the next inter-provincial meeting of the excise ministers would be held in Punjab in the month of July.The Minister for Excise and Taxation of NWFP, Fazle Rabi, said that his government had embarked on a reform agenda, through which some relief would be extended to the property tax payers.

He said that his government would continue to strive for cordial relations with all the provinces and the Centre.The Minister for Excise and Taxation of Balochistan, Amanullah Notazai, said that no property tax was being charged from those having one house, irrespective of its area. He further said that no property tax was being levied in trible areas of the province.

To a question, he proposed that surveillance cameras should be installed on Sindh-Balochistan borders especially at the entry point of Hub to check theft of cars from Sindh.

The ministers also also made proposals for the MVT collection. Since several legal and administrative implications were involved in switching over to new procedure of collecting MVT, they felt the need of further deliberations on the subject.

They, however, were unanimous that switching over to Road Usage Tax (RUT) would increase the government revenue and minimize the problems of public.Briefing the participants on the RUT proposal, Mr Rauf Siddiqui said that the vehicle owners had to face hardships in depositing MVT standing in long queues that had also encouraged corruption.

It was proposed that MVT be merged in fuel price to ease the vehicle owners, he said. Under this proposal, from Re0.25 to Rs0.30 per litre would be charged on account of MVT. The amount so collected by the oil companies would be transferred to the provincial governments by the end of every month, he added.

Mr Rauf Siddiqui informed that around 1.6 million vehicles were operating in Sindh, out of which 1,122,063 were registered in Karachi alone by April 30 last. Out of these, a large number of vehicles were reportedly operating in other provinces that had resulted in decline of MVT here, as the owners of such vehicles used to deposit the tax in other provinces. Under this situation, the government of Sindh had fixed a target of MVT collection at Rs1,000 million, he said.

Since, the taxes paid in other provinces were not mentioned in the record of Sindh Excise and Taxation Department, such vehicles were treated defaulters here, he said. However, after the introduction of RUT, no such problem would arise, he added.

Mr Rauf Siddiqui also asked his counterparts to bring excise duty, assessment fee, vend fee, licence fee and permit fee in other provinces at par with that being charged in Sindh. Such disparity was encouraging smuggling of liquor and other items to Sindh, he added.