Political will and pressure hindering, taxing the powerful including lawyers, doctors

LAHORE: Political affiliations and pressures are barring the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) from taxing the ‘powerful’ segments of society including doctors and lawyers while the authority has successfully collected Rs 110 billion general sales tax on service during the last fiscal year by bringing more than 62,000 people in the tax net.Besides, it has brought number of services and sectors under the tax net by applying latest technologies and only in Lahore it has been online monitoring more than 600 restaurants through technology. Additionally, PRA has also been using drone technologies to monitor the container yards of the cargo services providers in province.This was briefed by the PRA Chairman Javed Ahmed to a delegation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) that visited the Punjab Revenue Authority Headquarters here on Wednesday to know about the structure and technological reforms introduced by the PRA in tax collection in the province.The IMF delegation consisted of Senior Economists Ms Teresa Daban and Dr Zafar Hayat who were briefed on the working mechanism, structure, progress and future plans of PRA.The PRA’s recent initiatives as well as components of the vision of e-PRA including Inter-Provincial Communications Portal, e-proceedings, pre-populated returns, STRIVe, online payment of sales tax, e-courts and Mass Audits were discussed.PRA Chairman Javed Ahmed briefed the visitors about the Blue Sky Thinking initiative recently launched by PRA through which various sectors including marriage halls, warehouses, construction premises, container terminals, etc. were being monitored with the help of drone technology.Furthermore, he informed the delegation that a survey of prospective taxpayers was already completed through which identified 25,000 more people which will be brought into the tax net.Additionally, the PRA has sent tax notices to 14,725 people during the ongoing fiscal year besides collecting Rs 61 billion of taxes during the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal year.The chairman also informed that due to the mistake of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Rs 6.3 billion of the PRA was transferred to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) account.The IMF team appreciated the PRA’s efforts in promoting of Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the Punjab and its vision of becoming a technology-centric organisation. The team was applauded the vision and direction of the PRA towards technology adoption and conveyed their belief that a modern revenue organisation must promote the use of technology and minimise manual processes in order to facilitate the taxpayers and increase the government revenue generation through transparent manners.

from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2Jqi8TG