LAHORE -  After the successful roll-out of RIMS (Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) has now developed Beauty Parlours Invoice Monitoring System (BIMS) which has been done in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board.

A meeting in this regard was held with Hair and Beauty Salon’s Association today at PRA main building, Lahore. Representatives of Hair and Beauty Salon’s Association were formally invited to get themselves updated on the recent developments. A number of leading members from Hair and Beauty Salon’s Association attended the meeting.

Recently, the PRA initiated a summary wherein a reduced rate scheme for the beauty parlours has been approved by the government of Punjab. At present, registration in beauty services sector stands only at 287 registered tax payers yielding about 3 to 4 million a month.

Previously, PRA conducted a workshop with beauticians and owners of such salons. Thereafter, Pakistan Hair and Beauty Salon’s Association filed a representation before the Punjab Revenue Authority to sympathetically consider the beauty services sector’s plea for reducing the rate of sales tax on hair and beauty parlours to around 5 percent. After a series of meetings to figure out a workable option, it was also mutually resolved that the proposed reduction in the sales tax rate will be admissible for only those who opt for invoice monitoring system which will be installed on their business premises for monitoring the sales invoices on real time basis.

During the meeting, representatives of the association promised full support for bringing their members into Punjab Sales Tax net and insured further cooperation for installation of the new system at their business premises. Details of the reward scheme on the lines of the reward scheme for RIMS (Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System) were also shared. It was also decided to meet again in the coming week to finalise the modalities of this newly installed system.

Punjab Revenue Authority is actively working on enhancing the geographical outreach of such monitoring systems to other cities of Punjab. Punjab Revenue Authority is expecting that once BIMS is implemented, the revenue from that sector will also improve considerably as has happened with the restaurant sector. At the same time, PRA, with its aim of improving tax compliance in the country, has expressed its keen desire and interest in sharing its experiential knowledge with other tax collection agencies of Pakistan for which purpose it is in the process of setting up an advance training & research facility.