RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi division collected Rs3 billion taxes against the target of Rs4 billion set by the Punjab government until March 2016 and stood first across the province.

“In the Rawalpindi district, Rs1.162 billion were collected from different taxes in the current fiscal year,” said an excise and taxation department official at a seminar arranged by the provincial government in connection with the Punjab Tax Day on Monday.

Punjab Minister for Labour and Manpower Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, MPA Raja Hanif Advocate, Tahseen Fawad, Dr Jamal Nasir, Malik Shakil Awan, excise and taxation director Tanveer Gondal and local administration senior officials attended the function at the Rawalpindi Arts Council (RAC).

Speaking on the occasion, the minister for labour and manpower said the government would spend the public money on the welfare of the citizens.

“The government is striving hard to ensure the public money should be spent at a right place. For the prosperity of the country, it is necessary that the money collected from taxes should be spent judicially,” he said.

He said the government was improving the system of tax collection so that the citizens would pay their taxes without any fear and the money would be transferred to the government accounts without hurdles.

The minister said the tax day was being observed to create awareness among the people to pay their taxes and in return the government will spend it on welfare projects.

“After getting the authority to collect taxes on services, the provincial government formed the revenue authority in all the 36 districts of the province to strengthen the tax collection system,” he said.

RCCI office-bearers informed the participants about taxes being paid by the business community and said the system should be simplified so the citizens would pay taxes without technical hurdles.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2016