E-Pay Punjab collects Rs500m taxes in 100 days
E-Pay Punjab, the first-ever government payment aggregator for citizen facilitation and ease of business, has collected over Rs 500 million in tax revenue from multiple levies across Punjab in 100 days.
This was informed in a progress review meeting presided by Chairman Punjab IT Board Azfar Manzoor on Wednesday. The system was launched on 4th October, 2019 as a collaborative endeavour between Punjab Information Technology Board and Finance Department of Punjab which provided the general public a stress-free and efficient method of paying all taxes and payments to the government using ICT tools without going through the existing cumbersome process.
The meeting was informed that multiple new payment channels like Debit/Credit Card, Mobile Wallets, TELCO Agent Networks and Direct Debit from Account were being added to further increase the payment options available to the citizens and businesses.
Additionally, it was also planned to include Government to Public (G2P) and Government to Business (G2B) payment models in future to broaden the horizon of the program and following Tax/NonTax receipts like Online Admission for Colleges/Schools Fee, Driving License Fee, e-Challan, Character Certificate, Domicile, Fitness Certificate (Commercial Vehicles) and Agri Income Tax.
The E-Pay Punjab application enabled the citizens to generate a seventeen (17) digit unique PSID number that was accepted on all respective channels of all banks in Pakistan.
The banking channels which the citizens could utilize for tax payments were internet/mobile banking, ATM and over the Counter (OTC)/Branch visits.
The initiative has proved to be a game-changer in the local FinTech industry by playing a pivotal role in increasing tax the revenue collection of the province and improving financial inclusion. In its first phase, 13 taxes/levies and 5 departments were made a part of the app and portal. Excise & Taxation, Board of Revenue (BOR), Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Industries, Transport were the departments liaised with the app whereas citizens can 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.