LAHORE: To ease the online payment of ‘Abiana’ (irrigation water charges) the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) would develop an ‘Irrigation Revenue Collection’ smartphone application for the Board of Revenue (BoR) Punjab.

In this connection, Punjab Irrigation Secretary Wasif Khurshid chaired a meeting with PITB, the Punjab Irrigation Department and the Member Taxes Board of Revenue (BoR) here on Friday; they discussed the collection of ‘Abiana’ through PITB developed ‘Irrigation Revenue Collection System’ (formerly called e-Abiana).

On this occasion, PITB Additional Director General (ADG) Khurram Mushtaq gave a detailed presentation on the development of the Irrigation Revenue Collection application as part of the ‘Irrigation Revenue Collection System’ that aims at assisting the BoR in the collection of ‘Abiana’ by lumberdars (village headmen). At the same time, PITB Director Ali Kheiri briefed the attendees on the roles of the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners in the collection of ‘Abiana’.

The Punjab Irrigation Secretary appreciated the PITB’s contribution in successfully rolling out the initiative, which was successfully functional across Punjab and discussed the way forward. Previously, ‘lumberdars’ used to collect ‘Abiana’ bills manually from irrigators; now these Bills would be collected by using the Irrigation Revenue Collection application. After collecting single bills from irrigators, ‘lumberdars’ would generate club bills of already collected single bills and subsequently, they would pay the club bills through banks, mobile banking and internet banking.

‘Abiana’ recovery status could be monitored by the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners in their respective districts and tehsils via Irrigation Revenue Collection System. The e-Abiana System was launched in December 2020 and was active in 57 irrigation divisions across Punjab.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023