PRA registers 22pc annual revenue increase, open-door policy to reduce petitions, with 100,000 new registered taxpayers, says PRA chief.
Punjab Revenue Authority would surpass the annual budget target of revenue collection of Rs 155.9 billion likewise of the last year while it has already registered more than 100,000 taxpayers by December 2021 against the target assigned till June 2022.
The Authority had already collected Rs 72 billion revenue in the first half (January-December) of the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal year of Rs 58 billion. Further, out of the Rs 58 billion, PRA had received Rs 16 billion from the Federal Board of Revenue in adjusting taxes already collected by the board.
This was briefed by the Chairperson PRA Zain ul Abidin Sahi to Lahore Economic Journalist Association (LEJA) to discuss the revenue growth trajectory of the authority and prospects. President LEJA Muhammad Sudhir Chaudhry was also present in this briefing. The PRA was registering almost 22 percent annual revenue growth, which was nearly double of nominal GDP rate of the country.
Elaborating on the policy reforms, Sahi said a policy was adopted in which taxpayers interactions were ensured before going to the courts, which resulted in a reduction of court cases to only 574, out of which 64 were tax references Lahore High Court, and 510 were writ petitions. Whereas, monthly new cases ratio was reduced to less than five. He explained that taxpayers were unaware of the issues and approached the court most of the time. At the same time, now the PRA tried to resolve the problems at the authority level, which resulted in a drastic decline in litigations.
Following the open door policy, the taxpayers’ trust increased in the PRA while the taxpayers knew the issues would be resolved. The PRA was a zero corruption department despite interactions with the taxpayers as both taxpayers and authority officials knew about the zero-tolerance policy on corruption and tax evasion, he mentioned. Further, a policy of non-corrosive measures also increased the trust of taxpayers. Any PRA official could not be sealing any business and attachments of taxpayers’ bank accounts except the chairperson. During the last year, corrosive measures were taken against only three cases.
On a question about taxing the international services providers like Google, Netflix and others in the province, Sahi always said a mechanism needed to get tax from the taxpayers. He said that the taxpayers were compelled to pay taxes once a mechanism was devised. Thus, the PRA was designing a tool in which a seamless system would be made for the international technology companies and services providers to pay the taxes. He believed that once the mechanism evolves, the multinational companies will pay the taxes.
On tax evasion by the restaurant sector, Chairperson PRA said that 750 Point of Sale (POS) were integrated with the PRA system while further integration was underway. Besides integrating the businesses, including restaurants, beauty parlours, and others, the PRA also created awareness among the small restaurants and service providers working without POS with conventional methods to get themselves registered with the authority and start paying taxes. Further, the PRA also opened tax offices in small cities where many unregistered businesses were operational. These cities included Muree, Sialkot, Gujarat and others.
