LAHORE-E-Pay Punjab, the first-ever government payment aggregator for citizen facilitation and improving ease of doing business, has collected over PKR 10 billion in tax revenue from two million beneficiaries across Punjab since its launch in October last year.
This was conveyed in a progress review meeting of Punjab Information Technology Board. Presided by Chairman PITB Azfar Manzoor, the meeting was attended by PITB DG IT Operations Faisal Yousaf and other senior officials. E-Pay Punjab, an initiative to increase the digital and financial foot print among citizens of Punjab, is a collaborative effort of the Finance Department of Punjab and Punjab Information Technology Board.
The meeting was informed that e-Pay Punjab has made a collection of PKR 3.7 billion in September 2020 alone. Out of this, PKR 357 million have been collected through the recently introduced online payment facility of Traffic Challan, which has already been implemented in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan. By the end of 2020, Punjab Public Service Commission Fees, PEPRIS Fees (Education Dept.), Lahore Ring Road Authority Traffic Challan, and e-Abiana are expected to be added as taxes in ePay Punjab. Similarly, by next year Governor House Receipts, Domicile Fees, Character Certificate Fees, Arms Certificate Fees, Cinema Duty Tax and other fees and taxes will be added in the first quarter of 2021.
EPay Punjab provides an alternate and an easy mode of payments to the citizens using digital mediums such as a mobile application and a web portal. Multiple new payment channels like Visa / Master Card, Mobile Wallets, Branchless Banking Agents / TELCO Agent Networks and Direct Debit from Account are also being added to increase the payment options. The ePay Punjab application lets the citizens of Punjab generate a seventeen (17) digit unique PSID number that is accepted on all respective channels of all banks in Pakistan. The banking channels which the citizens can utilize for tax payments are Internet / Mobile Banking, ATM and Over the Counter (OTC) / Branch Visits.
In its first phase, 16 taxes/levies of 6 departments have been made part of the system. Excise & Taxation, Board of Revenue (BOR), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Punjab Police, Industries and Transport departments are integrated with the system allowing citizens to pay Token Tax, Motor Vehicle Registration, Transfer of Motor Vehicle, Property Tax, Professional Tax, Cotton fee, e-Stamping, Mutation fee, Fard fee, Sales Tax on Services, Punjab Infrastructural Development CESS, Business Registration fee, Traffic challan, vehicle fitness certificate, eAuction fee and Route permit fee through e-pay Punjab.