LAHORE: The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) collected record amount of Rs82.8 billion in fiscal year 2016-17, registering a growth of more than 35 percent.
This was stated by PRA Chairman Raheel Ahmed Siddiqui while speaking at the 13th, 14th and 15th balloting of Amanat Scheme (Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System) held under the aegis of PRA. Punjab Minister for Special Education Chauhdry Shafique Ahmed was the chief guest on the occasion.
The PRA chairman said that it gave him a great sense of achievement in informing that the authority in a very short span of almost five years had made significant impact on enhancing the tax revenues for Punjab and a fine example of this is the continuous success in achievement of its assigned targets. He said the tax base in the corresponding period has also increased to 40,000 which is more than double the number of registered taxpayers when compared with the figures of 2014-15.
He said PRA is trying its utmost to inculcate a new culture of voluntary tax compliance in Punjab by introducing a transparent, equitable and fair tax administration system which has enhanced the confidence of taxpayers. In recent times PRA has invested in introducing new facilitation measures like E-Courts linking Appellate Tribunal and Commissioner Appeals with all field offices, allowing online filing of appeals, and online issuance of orders.
He said that successful completion of programmes like junior and senior internship programmes along with Voluntary Tax Assistance Programme are also milestone achievements. He told the audience that the authority had conducted 12 draws of Amanat scheme in which 36 cars, 60 motorcycles, as many Umra tickets, and dozens of LED television sets were distributed. He said their teams were distributing gifts at doorstep.
The PRA chairperson said the balloting for Faisalabad people would take place after Eidul Azha and separate gifts had been reserved for them. He announced to launch Amanat scheme at Rawalpindi by the end of this current year.
He said the London School of Economics and the Harvard University are going to sign an agreement with PRA to study Amanat Scheme and its success stories aimed at binding restaurant customers to receive invoice from the restaurants for collection of GST in real time.
