LAHORE: Amid some technical hitches, non-cooperation by some restaurant owners and fear of litigation, the Punjab Revenue Authority has so far installed Restaurant Invoice Monitoring System (RIMS) in 34 eateries in the provincial capital for an efficient sales tax collection.
The software initially introduced in some seven restaurants in June/July 2015 as a pilot project is expected to be expanded to 150 eateries by November end.
However, it is being apprehended that litigation may hinder PRA bid to achieve its sales tax collection target for 2015-16.
A source in the authority told Dawn on Tuesday that as many as 100 restaurants had already been notified for installing the RIMs and linking it with the software designed by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited to transmit real time invoices of restaurants to PRA databank.
He said the Punjab government had approved the budget for purchase of IT gadgetry and hardware to set up its own e-monitoring mechanism cell within two months.
The source said the authority had been facing a lack of cooperation by some restaurants where the staff switched off internet from time to time to avoid generating e-invoices, resulting in tax evasion. To check such practices, PRA officials would be deputed in some restaurants to monitor the system, he added.
He said though some restaurant owners had hinted at moving court against installation of RIMS software, the PRA had solid grounds to charge sales tax from those eateries.
He said though the PRA gave an ample opportunity to majority of businesses in the services sector to file their returns on self-assessment (SAS) basis, in case of restaurants there was a tendency to conceal figures, especially among local chains.
The source said that in Islamabad a similar pilot project launched by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in April/May 2015 had to be abandoned after it failed to deliver.
Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2015
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