RAWALPINDI, Nov 14: Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) has sought the help of the district administration to expand its sales tax net across the province.

PRA asked City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) to provide the total number of organisations that fall under taxable services.

PRA is collecting sales tax on 17 categories of services including advertisement of Television and Radio, non-classified print media advertisement, hotels, restaurants, Caterers, clubs, custom agents, Ship Chandlers, Stevedores, telecommunications, Insurance, Banking companies, Non-banking financial institutions, stock brokers, shipping agents, courier services and franchises.

In its letter to the District Coordination Officer (DCO) on November 5, the PRA asked for data from all the seven Tehsils of the district Rawalpindi, including Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan Kahuta, Taxila, Murree, Kotli Sattian and Kallar Syedan.

After receiving the directions, DCO Saqib Zafar assigned the assistant commissioners to collect the data and submit it within a week.

PRA was established in July 2012 by the Punjab government under Punjab Revenue Authority Act 2012 to collect sales tax across the country. Earlier, all service providers were paying sales tax to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

But after the passage of the 18th Amendment, provinces would be responsible for collecting sales tax.

The share of Punjab in general sales tax on services was almost Rs40 billion during the last fiscal year. Punjab has already collected more than Rs42 billion tax revenue through its Excise and Taxation Department and Punjab Board of Revenue (BOR) out of which Rs16 billion is generated by Excise and Taxation Department and Rs26 billion by the BOR.

The province would also be able to save service charges being paid to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the collection of sales tax. Punjab was paying 20 per cent of its share in sales tax to FBR, as service charges for the collection of sales tax on services.

“The new department wants to make its own data, so it seeks the help of the district administration,” said Saqib Zafar, District Coordination Officer (DCO), while talking to Dawn .

He said that he had directed the assistant commissioners of the Tehsils to furnish the required reports within a week and after vetting the list, the report would be dispatched to PRA before the end of this month.