Tax collection: restaurants invoice monitoring system launched in Faisalabad

Under the joint arrangements of the Punjab Revenue Authority(PRA) and the Punjab Information Technology Board(PITB), the Restaurants Invoice Monitoring System (RIMS) has been launched in Faisalabad for which 42 restaurants in Faisalabad are paying sales tax under RIMS by February, 2017. The launching ceremony was held here at a local hotel in which Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan was the chief guest while Chairman Punjab Revenue Authority Dr Raheel Siddiqui, Commissioner PRA Hassan Raza, Deputy Commissioner Faisalabad Salman Ghani, parliamentarians Mian Abdul Mannan, Sh Ejaz Ahmad, Begum Najma Afzal, Rana Shoib Idrees, Raza Nasrullah Gumman, Chairman Zila Council Chaudhry Zahid Nazir, VC UAF Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Principal PMC Prorf. Dr Alfareed Zafar, Deputy Mayors Municipal Corporation Sh Muhammad Yousaf, Amin Butt, Vice Chairmen Rana Zulfiqar, Khalid Parvez Virk, representatives of trader organizations, industrialists, officers of different departments and a large number of civil societies were also present in the ceremony. The 9th, 10th and 11th computer balloting for Amanat Scheme under RIMS were also conducted during the ceremony for giving the lucrative prizes, including Honda City, Toyota Corolla, Suzuki Cars, Motorbikes, tickets of Ummrah to the lucky winners of invoice-holder restaurant consumers.
Addressing the RIMS launching ceremony, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan termed the RIMS a milestone in the ongoing revenue automation initiative taken by the Punjab government and the citizens endorsed this Punjab government remarkable steps by participating in RIMS which was very successful for revenue generating and discouraging the tax pilferage.
He said that awareness for tax payment would be raised under Amanat Scheme by giving incentives to the tax payers which was a useful method for tax collection in a conducive manner. Rana Sanaullah Khan said that the collection was a government responsibility for which good strategy was imperative so that the people could be inclined themselves to pay the tax without any fear or pressure. He said that Amanat Scheme under RIMS had got a great response from Lahore and now this was being introduced at Faisalabad and would be expanded across the province. He told that the sales tax collection would be raised up to 9.38 billion from 5.21 billion by launching RIMS at Faisalabad. Rana Sanaullah Khan said that the taxation was the gateway to the development for providing the basic amenities to the people by collecting the resources. He said that under the visionary leadership of CM Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab government had taken a number of steps for welfare and the progress of the people and each penny of exchequer was being utilized with great honesty. He said that the a number of mega projects costing billion of rupees were being completed in a transparent manner and billion of rupees had been saved from the energy projects through transparent utilisation of funds.
He appreciated the good governance and remarkable efforts of Chairman Punjab Revenue Authority Dr Raheel Siddiqui for tax collection through successful strategy and introducing Amanat Scheme to give attractive incentives of valuable prizes to the invoice holder. He also lauded the arrangements for holding launching ceremony at Faisalabad. Earlier, Chairman Punjab Revenue Authority Dr Raheel Siddiqui said that Amanat Scheme had become a hall mark of tax collecting and said Punjab Revenue Authority was actively working on enhancing the geographically outreach of the RIMS to the other cities of the Punjab. He informed that the balloting of the invoices was being carried out at every month and lucky winners had been given cars, motorbikes, Ummrah tickets, tablets, food coupon, small cell phones, LEDs and different other prizes. He informed that 24 cars, 40 Ummrah tickets, 40 motorbikes, 80 LEDs, 80 small cell phones and more than 250 other prizes had also been given during the last 8 draws by conducting transparent balloting through computer. During the ceremony, the prizes of cars, motorbikes and Ummrah tickets were distributed among the winners of 7th and 8th draws.
Later, the 9th, 10th and 11th balloting was carried out through computer and the chief guest Rana Sanaullah Khan informed the lucky winners through phone calls about winning the cars and the winners were excited on this information.