Lahore: The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) registered 22% growth in revenue collection from the non-telecommunication sector during the first half of the fiscal year 2018-19, a news source reported. The collection stood at PKR 28.832 billion in taxes this time; better than the PKR 23.664 billion received last year.
At the same time, PRA recorded a shortfall of 21% in withholding tax collection. The provincial exchequer has also suffered from the tax suspension ordered on pre-paid and post-paid cellular services by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. As such, the telecommunication sector is the single largest tax contributor.
During the fiscal year 2017-18, the telecommunication sector contributed PKR 12.832 billion to the provincial vault. In the recent fiscal cycle, this figure saw a reduction to PKR 5.888 billion, registering a decline of 54%.
PRA Chairman Javed Ahmed, speaking on the matter, said that the overall performance of the non-telecom revenue collection effort was encouraging – because it indicated that authority was flowing in the right direction. However, he was also of the opinion that slow economic growth was impacting tax revenues adversely; thereby causing difficulties for tax collection agencies.
