LAHORE: The provincial government has increased the target for Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) by 40 percent for the next fiscal year announced by Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha.
Sources said that the department fixed Rs 52 billion target for the fiscal year 2015-16 and it achieved the target before time.
Now the tax collection target for the Punjab Revenue Authority has been fixed at Rs 86.5 billion for the financial year 2016-17, which shows an increase of 40 percent over the revised estimates of fiscal year 2015-16. The PRA is responsible for collection of sales tax on services. Despite legal issues pertaining to the constitution of the PRA, it has achieved an overall increase of 44 percent as compared to actual receipts of 2014-15.
PRA is expecting to bring a further robust revenue growth in the year 2016-17 and in the long run intends to move to a negative list whereby all services will be taxable except for those specifically exempted. It will eventually broaden the tax base in traditionally untapped/non-compliant wide range of services so that Punjab has a large taxpayer base for consistent revenue growth unimpeded by non-performance of any specific sector.
As per the budget statement 2015-16, budgetary target was based on several new revenue measures taken at the time of presentation of the Finance Act 2015-16. The revenue performance of the Punjab Revenue Authority has significantly improved as compared to the previous financial year.
Right after the devolution of the sales tax on services to the provinces, the FBR did not withdraw federal excise duty on most services chargeable to provincial sales tax. Therefore facilities for travel (by air), transportation of goods by air and chartered flight services were charged with sales tax on services at the time of Finance Bill of 2015-16.
