PRA collects 37pc more revenue in July

LAHORE:Growth trajectory of Punjab Revenue Authority is continued from the start of the new fiscal year as it posted more than 37 percent increase in revenue collection in July 2022 than the corresponding period of 2021.

The revenue collection growth in July 2022 was almost double to July 2021 as the PRA had collected Rs10.48 billion which was 19.5 percent higher than the July 2020.

According to the revenue collection data available with The News, the PRA collected Rs14.37 billion in July 2022, registered a growth of 37.1 percent from corresponding period of 2021 of Rs10.48 billion.

The PRA has now become the first provincial revenue collection agency in Pakistan which collected more than Rs14 billion in first month of new fiscal year which is exceptional. Earlier, never in its history, the PRA or any other provincial authority had crossed Rs11 billion in July of any year.

The growth pattern of the PRA remained on upwards during the last fiscal year. The PRA overall growth was 18.37 percent, despite the fact that it got lesser money from FBR on account of input adjustment as compared to the year before. The PRA had received around Rs16 billion in fiscal year 2020-21 and almost Rs12 billion for in fiscal year 2021-22 from FBR on account of cross input adjustment. If this would be lessened from the PRA revenue collection, then the Authority made an increase of 24 percent growth in revenue collection in fiscal year 2021-22. During the fiscal year 2021-22, PRA exceeded its assigned target by collecting over Rs170 billion.

The data showed that the telecommunication services are still on the top of the contributing sector with Rs2.676 billion contribution and 18 percent growth, followed by Banking/nonbanking/ insurance of Rs1.967 billion and withholding agents of Rs1.805 billion.

The franchise services generated Rs674.770 million, contractual services Rs448.396 million, restaurant, including cafes Rs417.868 million, manpower recruitment agencies Rs361.473 million, construction services Rs355.418 million, transport of goods services Rs337.605 million and inter-city carriage of goods by rail and roads services Rs304.065 million.

"The growth in revenue reflects a promising start of the current financial year and the Authority is optimistic about successfully achieving its assigned target of Rs190 billion for the current financial year 2022-23", a spokesperson for the PRA believed.

The growth in collection is result of the focused efforts of PRA officers and the vision of the Punjab government for providing right direction resulting in desired and favorable results, the Chairperson PRA Zain-ul-Abidin Sahi believed. “The PRA has been exceeding the assigned revenue collection targets for over the past three years while adopting the taxpayer friendly voluntary compliance model which is a great achievement in Pakistan’s scenario having undocumented economy”, he added. The PRA has been relying on making persons (both public and private) compliant through facilitation and stakeholder involvement. Resultantly, the momentum is growing and more and more taxpayers are paying proper taxes.

However, it is also worthy to mention that the PRA is still working with contractual workforce while the process of regularising the high performing revenue collecting employees is still not on the government priorities.