LAHORE: The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), which has recently relaunched its enforcement operations for sales tax on services collection after getting relief from the Lahore High Court and an ordinance passed from the Punjab Assembly, is currently facing a shortfall of Rs10 billion for the fiscal year 2015-16.

The authority had been stopped from enforcement operations by a single-judge court on Jan 25, but got relief from a two-judge court through an appeal on Feb 4.

Sources in the PRA told Dawn on Tuesday the authority had collected Rs32 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2015-16 against the projected target of about Rs42 billion. They, however, said the 10-day non-functioning of the authority following litigation had impacted the annual revenue targets of Rs72 billion negatively, as the authority failed to collect around Rs400 million from two services in January and faced non-compliance even from non-resistant sectors.

The sources further said the Federal Board of Revenue had also recently refused to transfer Rs10 billion under input tax adjustment claims and delayed payment for an indefinite period on certain pretexts. The central revenue authority acknowledged it owed Rs10bn to the PRA against the Rs15bn claims, they added.

They said in a recent meeting the PRA chairperson had issued strict orders to his field officers to restart operations to tap more revenue to meet annual targets as the chief minister had revised the target upward “unofficially” and “verbally” from Rs72bn to Rs80bn.

The sources said the sectors that had been prioritised for the current month for tapping sales tax on services were construction, beauty salons and restaurants.

A PRA official said the authority was severely understaffed as only 50 regular field officers and officials were discharging duties from initial interaction with various sectors to sealing operations and court battles. He said 58 services required a sufficient number of people, adding the PRA did not have more than 170 officials, including office staff.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016