LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayeshsa Ghous Pasha has said during the last ten months of the ongoing fiscal year 35 percent revenue growth is witnessed by the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) on the GST on services collected from the 59 services in the province.
Other than this number of registered taxpayer are also doubled reaching to about 22000 during the same period of time, Dr Ayeshsa Ghous Pasha said.
She expressed these views while addressing a budget training session organized by the Lahore Economic Journalist Association (LEJA) in collaboration with the Lahore Press Club here on Tuesday. LEJA President Sudhir Chaudhry, Lahore Press Club EC Member Jawwad Rizve, Faisal Rasheed Siddique and M. Arshad from finance department also there.
The minister pointed out earlier when the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collects GST on services it net only 5 to 7 services while the provincial government has broadened the tax net by including 59 services. She hinted that more services will add in the GST which is not in the tax net. “The Punjab government believes in broaden the tax net by adding untaxed, under tax, and those evading the taxes rather to increase the tax rate which is injustice with the existing tax payers”, she said.
The minister said the provincial government has focused broaden the tax base by revamping the tax administration, by automating it, easing the tax payment system and creating tax awareness among the masses so that they will proudly pay taxes.
Talking about the government priorities in the forthcoming budget, she said that health, education, clean drinking water (saaf paani), agriculture and infrastructure development are the key areas which will primarily focus in the budget.
