Punjab to digitise tax collection with World Bank support

The Punjab government plans to overhaul its tax administration using digital tools, after the Punjab Revenue Authority and the World Bank agreed to work on expanding the province's tax base and improving revenue collection.

A World Bank delegation led by Regional Director Michael Roggi and Manager Sylvia Solf met PRA Chairman Moazzam Iqbal Sipra to discuss modernising the province's tax administration. According to the account of the meeting, the two sides agreed to make effective use of digital databases, implement the digital economy enhancement project and study international best practices in taxation.

Sipra said digital tools would help bring new businesses into the tax net, and stressed the need to integrate data held by different government departments so that collection becomes more transparent and efficient. "Digital data will help identify tax evasion, misappropriation and discrepancies in business records," he said.

With technical and financial support from the World Bank, the PRA and the Punjab Information Technology Board will jointly prepare a plan for digital tax reforms. "A practical roadmap for tax reforms will be developed with the technical assistance of the World Bank," Sipra added.

The details were first reported by Business Recorder. No timeline, funding figures or targets for the reforms were disclosed in that account.