‘49,000 taxpayers in Punjab now from 2,500 in 2012’

LAHORE: Payment of taxes is the prime responsibility of every individual in the country, and the awareness campaign to motivate the masses to pay taxes initiated by Punjab Revene Authority in the form of Tax Day is commendable.

These views were expressed by Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha and Excise and Taxation Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman while addressing an event organised by PRA on Tax Day.

Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said every tax payer’s money was being well spent on infrastructural and developmental projects under the leadership of Chief Minster Shahbaz Sharif.

Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha commended PRA for delivering its best and appreciated its initiatives, including the Tax Day and Amanat Scheme under the Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System (RIMS). She said taxation was gateway to development. He said the government marked April 10 as Tax Day to not just highlight the significance of taxation but to highlight the importance and benefits of paying taxes.

The finance minister congratulated the PRA on launching new systems such as Notice Management System, a web-based software allowing PRA to centrally manage electronic notices and taxpayer’s profiling efficiently, Pre-populated Returns, a system introduced with the cooperation of World Bank to help facilitate the tax payers by providing them with automated filing of online tax forms and implementation of hotel and courier invoice management system.

She stressed it was also the responsibility of the general public to pay taxes to reap the benefits of it in the form of health, education and infrastructure facilities. She said both the tax collectors and tax payers were partners in the country’s development.

PRA Chairman Dr Raheal Ahmed the aim of observing the Tax Day was to highlight the importance of tax collection for the performance of state affairs and to help the tax payers understand the purpose of tax collection. He said PRA was introducing new and novel ways of tax surveys to broaden its tax base and it was conducting tax clinics to help resolve the issues faced by the tax payers.

"In 2012, the total number of registered tax payers was 2,500, whereas, today PRA has over 49,000 registered tax payers," he said. He said PRA was the most progressive tax collection agency in the country which had also offered other sub-national tax collection agencies of other provinces for the training of their officers. The PRA chairman thanked the international donors GIZ, DFID and World Bank for their cooperation. He lauded the chief minister's vision for making PRA a progressive and advanced department.

Earlier, the PRA had conducted seminar titled “Harmonization of Sales Tax Collection in Pakistan” as part of Tax Day 2018 to address the tax payers' issues in the presence of the heads of all revenue collection agencies and stakeholders. A seminar “A Tax Paying Women is More Vocal and Guardian of her Rights”, and a debate competition “Tax Evasion is an Impediment to Growth” were also held. Furthermore, tax awareness activities and poster competition at Al-Hamra Art Council and shopping malls activities were the part of this year's tax day celebrations.

Shields were awarded to the best tax payers while prizes, including cars, motorbikes and Umra tickets, were given to the winners of the 19th, 20th and 21st Tax Amanat Scheme (RIMS) for Lahore-based restaurants and the balloting for the 22nd, 23rd and 24th was held.

uplift schemes: The Punjab government Tuesday approved four development schemes of different sectors at an estimated cost of Rs 1.298 billion. The schemes were approved in the 59th meeting of Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) of the current fiscal year.

The schemes are: Construction of Various Development Schemes (7Nos.) for District Hafizabad at a cost of Rs. 90.268 million, Construction of 3 Connecting Roads to Village Kolo Tarrar, 3.25 km, in District Hafizabad at a cost of Rs 45.633 million, Widening and Improvement of Road from MDA Chowk to Dera Adda Chowk, Multan, (Dual Carriageway) at a cost of Rs 574.721 million and Construction of Flyover at Jhal Road Railway Crossing to Sahiwal City at a cost of Rs. 587.703 million.