PESHAWAR: In an effort to enhance the capacity of withholding agents, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) held a workshop on Sales Tax Withholding Regulations, 2020, said a press release.

The workshop was organised with support of the USAID-funded Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Mobilisation (KPRM) Activity at the Elites Hotel in Nathiagali on Wednesday. Besides withholding agents, the participants included officials of universities and representatives of development authorities and education boards in the Northern Region.

In his welcome address, Additional Collector of KPRA’s North Region Umar Arshad Khan thanked USAID-KPRM for supporting KPRA’s efforts for enhancing capacity of withholding agents. He spoke at length on the role of withholding agents in helping KPRA meet its annual revenue collection targets.

Addressing the withholding agents, he said: “The KPRA collected Rs30.3 billion in the fiscal year 2021-22 and your role in the collection is very crucial for us. We achieved our target with your support and we expect you to continue supporting (us).”

He said the objective of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of withholding agents and assured them of his complete support in addressing their problems, like lack of liaison.

He said that the authorities would soon hold awareness sessions in universities for students so that a ‘culture of tax’ could be developed in the province.

The KPRA’s deputy collector for North Region, Raheel Iqbal, gave a detailed presentation on the Sales Tax Withholding Regulations 2020 to the participants and elaborated upon its each section. He also explained how to calculate and withhold sales tax on services from service providers and then submit their monthly returns.

Mr Iqbal said that withholding agents need to keep their records for five years because within that period KPRA can ask them to produce the same.

Another KPRA official, Jawad Rauf Kiyani, gave a live demo to the participants on how to calculate their sales tax on services and submit their monthly withholding statement to the KPRA portal.

Public Outreach Specialist of the USAID-KPRM Naveed Yousafzai said on the occasion that his organisation would continue to support KPRA by holding capacity-building workshops in Bannu, Chitral, and Bajaur for public sector withholding agents in the coming weeks.

“We will continue to support KPRA to build (a good) tax culture in the province,” he added.

The participants of the workshop praised the organisers and vowed to continue supporting senior KPRA officials in meeting their targets.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

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