‘PRA’s legal justification to boost taxpayers’ trust’

LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht said the decision of the higher judiciary about the legal status of Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) was praiseworthy and it would boost the morale of the PRA and its performance would also be improved.

The legal justification about the PRA establishment will increase the trust of taxpayers along with increasing tax collection system in the province. The minister said the PRA proved its mettle with its immaculate performance. Giving the background, he said the PRA started its journey in 2012 after the transfer of powers of receiving sales tax on services to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment and ensured increase in tax collection through computerisation of tax collection system in the province.

He said that PRA had collected Rs100 billion as taxes in 2018-19 alone, Rs17 billion were collected in June 2018 while this amount was only Rs9 billion in 2017-18. He said that taxpayers were provided different services through the PRA platform and one link online system had been introduced to ease the business activities. He said that customers’ relationship management system was being introduced during the current fiscal year and the registration as well as the redress of taxpayers’ complaints would be possible through an automatic system. The minister said that PRA was the only provincial authority which ensured complete implementation of Sales Tax Real-time Invoice Verification System through collaborative arrangements with the FBR. It is sanguine that the PRA has educated the people about the importance of tax payment and laid the foundation of a new tax culture in the province. In this regard, launch of internship programmes and inclusion of material about the importance of taxes in syllabi was important. He disclosed that rules were being studied to deal with the matters relating to PRA staff and new recruitments and assured that such issues would be resolved very soon.