BADIN, Feb 3: Tapedars (low-ranking revenue officials) in the habit of feeding wrong and often concocted figures into assessment reports about crops cultivated in a particular area brings into question the farm taxes the department levies and the budgetary allocations the government makes on the basis of such reports.

The officials’ negligence in crop assessment, called “partal” in the revenue department’s parlance, goes unchecked through the hierarchy of bureaucrats, from the lowest to the highest, because they no longer carry out ‘inspection’ of their subordinates’ work.

According to land revenue schedule for inspection, tapedars have to conduct 100 per cent field survey of the area under their jurisdiction. Supervising tapedars have to check at least 25 per cent of that report before forwarding it a revenue mukhtiarkar who finally submits it to an assistant commissioner.

A deputy commissioner too can randomly check the partal report to ascertain veracity of figures. He can also make field visits to make sure whether the revenue staff has fed correct figures about crops in their field book and whether they maintain Khasra-Girdwari (a dossier on peasants and cultivators in a given area) so as to be able to fix realistic tax targets.

But the officials no longer take the trouble of going through reports, carrying out inspection of their subordinates or making field visits because their interests generally lie somewhere else.

Sources in the revenue department said that a target of Rs20,280,000 had been fixed for Badin district. The target appeared confusing because it had been projected on the basis of assessment reports submitted by officials of only two talukas: Talhar and Tando Bago.

The tapedars of Matli, Badin and Shaheed Fazal Rahu talukas had not yet submitted their reports, said the sources.

According to the reports, Talhar and Tando Bago cultivated an area of 124,071 acres and 55,140 acres, respectively, during the kharif season in 2011-12.

The officials in the revenue department rely heavily on “Gulloo wara ang” (Gulloo’s figures) to make reports and come up with cock and bull figures when pressed by higher authorities.

As the story goes, Gulloo worked as a lowly clerk in the revenue department who had a reputation for being adept at juggling with figures. He would prepare reports and tailor statistics according to the wishes of his bosses.

Landowners Mohammad Sharif, Khairo Khan and others said the field staff of the revenue and irrigation department mostly made wrong estimates and rough calculations about cultivated area.

They deliberately reported wrong figures to be able to misappropriate revenue, they said, adding the officials skimmed their share from recovery of aabiyana (water tax) on cultivated area.

Aabiyana was earlier collected by the revenue department and was transferred to the irrigation department in 1992-93 in a bid to improve tax recovery and help the department meet operation and maintenance costs of the irrigation system. But the gap between cost and aabiyana receipts remained wide as ever.

In the past, assessment figures of cultivated crops conducted by officials of both departments were compared and tallied but the exercise was given up after the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority took over the recovery exercise.

A farmer Mohammad Hashim Soomro said that no recovery official of the irrigation or revenue department had approached him for aabiyana and land tax. Big landlords and feudal lords were major defaulters of aabiyana tax, he said.

Abdul Jabbar Gopang, president of the Larr Abadgar Association, said that big landlords generally defaulted on payment of tax. The tax recovery would never improve unless the government went after influential landowners who often used their political clout to avoid paying taxes, he said.

No Sida official could come up with answers when asked about assessment of cultivated crops and position of tax recovery in Badin district.

Assistant Director Agriculture Mr Islamuddin said the target for kharif crops was fixed at 364,119 acres in 2011-12 but it was surpassed and 387,675 acres were brought under cultivation in the district.

According to break-up, paddy was sown on 204,600 acres, sugarcane on 111,985 acres, cotton on 37,650 acres and tomatoes were cultivated on 33,440 acres, he said.

Mr Gopang called for harsh penalties for defaulters and stern action against corrupt officials of the revenue and irrigation departments in order to improve tax recovery.

He stressed the need for capacity building of field staff to get accurate assessment of cultivated area and crops in their areas of jurisdiction.