Punjab to launch mobile app for tax payments

The Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht has disclosed that the government of Punjab is planning to launch a mobile phone application for all the business-to-government (B2G) and public-to-government (P2G) payments in order to better facilitate the citizens and improve revenue generation through an easy payment technique.

The finance minister while chairing a joint meeting of the finance department and the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) at Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) office said that the Punjab Finance Department in joint efforts with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) was developing the application to ease the payment system in the country.

He remarked, “The programme will allow people of Punjab to pay taxes using three different electronic payment channels namely mobile banking, ATM and over the counter (OTC)”.

The minister said that the application would provide a helpful alternative to the decades-old payment system, which involved physical presence and visits to collection offices around the province for tax payments.

“Those visits required customers to stand in long queues and wait for many hours to pay their taxes. Such practices indirectly encouraged bribery and corruption but the mobile phone application will allow customers to pay their dues from the comfort of their homes,” he added.

In its first phase, the mobile application would collect 12 different taxes of the Excise Department, Board of Revenue, PRA, Punjab Land Record Authority, and Industry Department. These taxes include token tax, motor vehicle registration, transfer of a motor vehicle, property tax, cotton fee, professional tax, sales tax on services, mutation fee, business registration fee, and Punjab infrastructure development cess.

Through this application citizens in Punjab province will be able to generate 17-digit unique PSID number that can be used to pay necessary taxes through internet/mobile banking, ATM or visiting a bank.

Makhdoom Hashim also said that the ministry will add other payment channels in the app in the future. He added, “Additionally, it is also planned to include government-to-public (G2P) and government-to-business (G2B) payment models in future to broaden the horizon of the programme. The name and final launch date of the application will be announced soon”.