To facilitate the public and improve government revenue collection through easy payment collection, the Punjab government is launching a mobile phone application for business-to-government (B2G) and public-to-government (P2G) payments.
The application is jointly developed by the Punjab Finance Department and the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), disclosed Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Jawan Bakhat Hashim while chairing a joint meeting of the Punjab Finance Department and PITB here on Thursday.
The programme will allow the citizens of Punjab to pay their taxes using three different electronic payment channels, namely internet/mobile banking, ATM and through Over-the-Counter (OTC) banking transaction, the Minister disclosed.
In its first phase, 12 different taxes of the Excise, Board of Revenue (BOR), PRA, Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) and Industry department could be paid by the application. These taxes are 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, Punjab Infrastructural Development Cess and Business Registration fee.
"The application will allow the citizens of Punjab to generate a 17 digit unique PSID number that can be used to pay the necessary taxes thorough internet/mobile banking, ATM or visit to any bank. The solution will be an integrated and centralized system backed by the Government of Punjab web/mobile applications that will include all the scheduled banks, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and 1-link for interconnectivity," the Minister revealed.
According to him, the mobile application will replace decades old payment process that involves physical visits to the collection offices around the province for tax payments. Those visits required customers to stand in long queues and wait many hours to pay their dues to the government. The collection offices were invariably marked by the presence of informal touts who, though illegal, helped the clients go through complicated and complex procedures in relatively shorter duration for a certain sum of money. This practices that encouraged bribery and corruption is now being challenged by the application, which will allow the customer to pay his dues from even the comfort of his home.
The Minister said, "In future, the public will have an option of other mode of payment, including debit card, credit card, mobile wallets, TELCOs Agent Networks and direct debit from account. 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."
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