LAHORE - A coordination meeting of all the four provincial revenue authorities was hosted by the Punjab Revenue Authority on Monday. The meeting was presided over by Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, Finance Minister Punjab, and was attended by the representatives of all provincial revenue authorities including Khalid Mehmood, Chairman Sindh Revenue Board, Tahir Orakzai, Director General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority, Misri Ladhani, Chairman Balochistan Revenue Authority, Mushtaque Kazimi, Advisor Tax Policy SRB, and Mr. Iftikhar Qutab, Advisor KPRA as well as the chairperson and members of the PRA. The Punjab Revenue Authority apprised the participants of their recent IT initiatives including the launching of PRA-Mirror, PRA-Eye, payment of taxes through Alternate Delivery Channels, STRIVe and Blue Sky thinking.
Detailed deliberations were held on issues of mutual concern. The representatives discussed moving to a negative list for sales tax on services, issues regarding taxation of the telecom sector, taxation of digital economy and development of an Early Warning Mechanism among the four Revenue Authorities. Other issues pertaining to common framework of taxation of digital economy, recovery of sales tax on services mistakenly deposited to FBR by DISCO’s and oil marketing companies and case of Civil Aviation Authority vs the SRB were also discussed in the meeting.
The highlight of the event was the demonstration and launch of an Inter-Provincial Communications Portal developed by PRA, through which the four revenue authorities can keep in contact and share ideas and matters of mutual interest, electronically.
Speaking on the event the chief guest, Mukhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, Finance Minister Punjab,thanked the guests from other provinces for gracing the occasion and acknowledged the importance of such meetings to ensure that all provinces work together to improve the economy, revenue and promote ease of doing business. He suggested that such meetings should be held regularly. He also appreciated PRA’s efforts regarding the development of the Communications Portal and said that such electronic means of communication and sharing of ideas were essential for modern organizations. Earlier during a joint press briefing, Chairman SRB Khalid Mehmood appreciated PRA’s effort of organizing the meeting, he said such meetings are necessary for the resolution of tax related issues faced by the business community and for providing a comfortable environment for ease of doing business in the provinces.
DG KPRA, Tahir Orakzai in his remarks valued PRA’s resolution in providing a platform where all provincial revenue authorities could meet together and discuss issues relating to ease of doing business, tax facilitation and to create a roadmap towards resolution of issues with FBR.
In his comments, Misri Ladhani, Chairman BRA, thanked Javed Ahmed for inviting all the heads of the provincial revenue authorities to discuss tax related issues, rationalize tax services, and find means to help facilitate tax payers to increase the tax base and to create mutual understanding amongst the revenue collection authorities.
Chairman PRA Javed Ahmed in a response to a question stated that the suspension of tax collection from the telecom sector by the Supreme Court has resulted in a shortfall in overall tax collection by not only the provincial authorities but also the FBR and hoped for an early resolution to the case by the Supreme Court. He also shed light on the initiative of PRA to introduce Blue Sky Thinking, the use of drone technology for the surveillance of property development, construction services and marriage halls etc.