LAHORE: The Finance Ministry of Punjab has given instructions to the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) and Excise Taxation and Narcotics Control (ET&NC) Department that property tax exemption should be decided on the basis of property value instead of area whereas registration of vehicles running on the roads of Punjab should be made mandatory in Punjab.
In this regard, a Resource Mobilization Committee meeting was also held at the Finance Ministry office, in which Provincial Minister for Finance Sardar Mohsin Laghari issued instructions regarding the improvement of infrastructure, hospitals, schools and increase in revenues.
The Secretary Finance Punjab, Secretary Excise, Member Board of Revenue, Secretary Irrigation, Chairman Punjab Revenue Authority and all related departmental officers attended the meeting.
The finance secretary informed the finance minister about the targets set for the tax departments and the details of revenue in the first quarter and said that the PRA has collected 31 percent tax in the first three months of this fiscal year compared to last year.
He further informed the participants of the meeting that the PRA collected tax of RS 14.24 billion in the month of September, which was 18 percent more than the same period of last year as during the previous year a total of RS 12.11 were collected during the same period.
Similarly, Secretary Excise and Taxation and Member Board of Revenue informed the Provincial Minister about the difficulties in tax collection while assuring the achievement of the targets by the end of the financial year.
During the meeting, the finance minister directed all the departments including the Punjab Revenue Authority to improve the collections by bringing the defaulters into the tax net and remove the concerns of the public regarding the performance of the institutions.
“Improving the relationship between the people and the institutions is necessary to increase tax collections, unless the tax collection agencies change their corrupt practices and aggressive attitudes, the collection cannot be increased,” he said.
Leghari further said that along with the construction of new infrastructure, maintenance and repair of the existing infrastructure is also necessary.
“The government is largely dependent on revenue to improve the condition of public hospitals, schools and roads. To increase the revenue of the department, the expansion of the tax net should be ensured and the registration of the vehicles running on the roads of Punjab should be made mandatory in Punjab. There is no justification for tax exemption for rich widows. Cabinet and institutions should inform the public about the need and importance of tax money,” he instructed.
