LAHORE: After failing to get voluntary compliance by owners of banquet halls and caterers against the reduced ratio of sales tax in the last six-and-a-half-months, the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) on Saturday sealed another 11 marriage halls and caterers in different parts of the city.

The Punjab government’s reduction of tax ratio from 16pc to 5pc in February 2015 failed to attract both the services to pay tax.

A PRA team, led by Assistant Commissioner Kashif Nawaz Malik, raided places in Sabzazar, Johar Town, Thokar Niaz Baig, Wahdat Road, Walton Road, Davies Road and Nisbat Road and took action against tax evaders.

The estimated recovery of sales tax with the minimum Rs10,000 for banquet halls and Rs5,000 for caterers from the raided premises after Saturday’s operation is Rs1.5 million.

The sealed premises include Ghafoorur Raheel Marriage Hall, Shah Fareed Marriage Hall, Shahjahan Banquet Hall, Hassan Banquet Hall, Qila Marriage Hall, Moon Marquee, Shahi Khaima Marquee, Anas Banquet Hall, Outdoor Catering and Grand Banqueters.

A source said the PRA teams had sealed around 70 banquet halls in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Sargodha since April 2015. He said out of 1,125 marriage halls, identified in province by the PRA so far, 600 had been registered with the authority and up to 300 of those had been registered compulsorily.

The source said out of 1,000 caterers identified across the province, 200 had been registered on a compulsory basis while those remaining had shown defiance against the authority.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2015

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