Strengthen monitoring to increase tax collection: minister

LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht stressed the need of strengthening the monitoring system to increase the tax collection besides improving the public trust in the government.

Chairing a review meeting of six-month performance of the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) here Friday, the minister instructed the authority to facilitate the taxpayers. He said that use of drone technology was proving helpful in indentifying the potential taxpayers and evaders as well. Furthermore, the PRA is in close liaison with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the reconciliation on various tax matters between the province and federal government.

The minister was briefed by the Punjab Revenue Authority Chairman Javeed Ahmed. “By the end of the April single portal for the taxation would be functional while electronic invoice monitoring system was already optional on GST on service for transparent taxation system”, the minister observed.

He said the PRA was moving towards e-proceedings while PRA was performing well despite all the challenges faced by the economy. The PRA chairman briefed the meeting that despite downfall in the taxes due to suspension of GST on mobile services by the Supreme Court, the Punjab Revenue Authority increased tax collection by 22 percent on other services which was encouraging.

He said the PRA identified 22 new warehouses which were unregistered with the authority by using drone technology, besides identifying the food and construction sectors non taxpayers. The minister was briefed about the shortage of human resource issue and court cases faced by the Punjab Revenue Authority in detail which was impeding growth of tax collecting and hurdling in meeting the revenue targets fixed by the government for the authority.

The minister asked the Punjab Revenue Authority to clear the contract policy for hiring of the human resource in the authority and instructed follow the merit policy to resolve the human resource issues. He also instructed to consult with the legal experts to resolve the legal issues in the court cases amicably and swiftly.