Punjab to launch mobile application for tax collection

LAHORE: Punjab government will launch a mobile phone application ePay for all the Business-to-Government (B2G) and Public-to-Government (P2G) payments to facilitate the public and improve revenue collection through easy payment collection.

Punjab Finance Minister Makhddom Jawan Bakhat Hashim made the announcement on Thursday during a meeting of the Punjab Finance Department and the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), which jointly developed the application.

ePay will allow the citizens of Punjab to pay their taxes using three different electronic payment channels namely internet/mobile banking, ATM and through Over the Counter (OTC) banking transaction.

The ePay application will allow the citizens of Punjab to generate a seventeen (17) digit unique PSID number that can be used to pay the necessary taxes thorough internet/mobile banking, ATM or visit to any bank. In its first phase, 12 different taxes of the Excise, Board of Revenue (BOR), PRA, Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA), and Industry department could be paid by the ePay application. These taxes are token tax, Motor Vehicle Registration, Transfer of Motor Vehicle, Property Tax, Professional Tax, Cotton fee, e-Stamping, Mutation fee, Fard fee, Sales Tax on Services, Punjab Infrastructural Development Cess and Business Registration fee.

The solution will be an integrated and centralised system backed by government of Punjab web/mobile applications that will include all the scheduled banks, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and 1-link for interconnectivity. In future the public will be able to make multiple other payment channels including debit, credit card, mobile wallets, TELCOs Agent Networks and direct debit from account to further increase the payment options available to the customer.

Additionally, it is also planned to include Government-to-Public (G2P) and Government-to-Business (G2B) payment models in future to broaden the horizon of the programme and follow with tax/non-tax receipts, including online admission for colleges/schools fee, driving license fee, e-challan, character certificate, domicile, route permit, fitness certificate (commercial vehicles) and agri income tax.

The minister said the mobile application would help in complete departure from the erstwhile and decades old payment processes which involved physical visits to the collection offices around the province for tax payments.

“Those visits required customers to stand in long queues and wait many hours to pay their tax dues to the government,” he said. “The collection offices were invariably marked by the presence of informal touts, who though illegal, helped the clients go through complicated and complex procedures in relatively shorter duration for a certain sum of money.”

This practices that encouraged bribery and corruption was now being challenged by ePay, which would allow the customer to pay his dues from even the comfort of his home, he observed.

The minister believed that the mobile application ePay would provide the general public with a stress-free and efficient method of paying all taxes and payments to the government using Information Communication and Technology (ICT) tools without going through the existing cumbersome process. ePay promises to alter the financial landscape of the province for the better and provide a list of benefits to the government and citizens.

An official of the PITB said the government was expecting good benefits and impacts of ePay for both public and government. “The expected benefits are increase in government collections and tax net by making the payments process easy, increase the digital and financial footprint among citizens of Punjab, track collections at the lowest level, provide comprehensive analytics, and reporting tool to support policy and decision making,” he added.

Further, ePay would provide scalable solution to integrate financial institutions, payment methods, and government receipts as and when directed, scalable solution to develop a reconciliation engine, complied with the Account General office, covering an end to end flow of a payment.

The mobile application would ensure one click reporting for payments received against different levies, bank grade security as per the stated standards and solution complying with regulatory requirements.