LAHORE

The Punjab Revenue Authority’s revenue collection will double to around Rs3 billion annually from present collection of almost Rs1.5 billion after the launch of Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System.
PRA officials said that presently the Authority managed to collect only Rs1.5 billion from more than 250 restaurants in Punjab located mostly in posh areas of Lahore. The Authority has registered about 80 per cent big restaurants so far. The Authority has recently launched Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System in Lahore. In its first phase plan, software will be installed in 50 restaurants to receive record of the consumers.
After the launch of RIMS from Bistro 201 Restaurant in first week of August, the PRA has brought eight more restaurants in its Invoice Monitoring System. These restaurants located in posh areas of M.M. Alam Road and Qasoori Road, Gulberg, Lahore. The number of such restaurants is increasing on day to day basis. The restaurants recently covered under RIMS are XINHUA Enterprises (X-2), Al-Raya Restaurants, Tabaq Continental (Pvt) Limited, Food Consults (Pvt) Ltd. (Salt n Pepper), Coffee Tea and Company, Memories Restaurants, Babulalays, Ziafat Yen Hui.
PRA officials are of the view that businesses with clean hands and sound reputation for tax compliance are readily adopting the new system. They consider it as a transparent and trouble free electronic interface with the sales tax collection authorities. The restaurants in these areas which showed willingness to adopt this system included Palillos restaurants, Freddy’s Café, Bombay Chopati, Burger Hub, Namak Restaurant, Bar B Q Tonight, Café Berbra, Machaan, Mozerella, Café Alyanto and Chai Kafi aur Siasat and others. These will also be brought into the system in coming weeks.
The Authority has also planning registration of Shahi Qila Food Street and hotels around Qaddaffi Stadium in the first phase under Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System.
After expanding its scope to all the restaurants of Lahore, restaurants all over the province will be brought into the folds of the system as offices of PRA has been opened in Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala. The PRA officials said that availability of this software will eliminate human interference and at the time of payment of bill in the restaurants, all information regarding tax deduction will reach the department.
Officials said that a prize scheme is also being introduced for special interest of citizens in this programme, and the consumers can win precious prizes every week by paying their bills at the registered hotels,” he added.
It is to be noted that Punjab Revenue Authority is facing difficulties in achieving its revenue collection target mainly due to lack of staff and limited offices in the province. The PRA could collect around Rs45 billion against annual target of Rs95 billion in last fiscal year.
After the launch of Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System in Lahore it is hoped that revenue collection target will be narrowed. Officials said that PRA is presently facing several hardships in implementing RIMS which include political pressure and lack of IT experts in the department.