LAHORE: The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) has intensified its enforcement drive across the province, launching a strategic awareness and compliance initiative to tackle rampant tax evasion in the services sector.
The authority has deployed specialized enforcement teams to monitor high-volume businesses, including restaurants, marriage halls, and aesthetic clinics, after identifying significant revenue leakages. Recent audits unearthed massive tax disparities, with one aesthetic clinic alone reportedly concealing sales worth Rs1.8 billion in a single year.
Chairing a performance review meeting on Wednesday, PRA Chairperson Moazzam Iqbal Sipra confirmed that the authority collected over Rs220 billion during the first eight months of the current fiscal year. This marks a 40% increase compared to the Rs156.3 billion collected during the same period last year. Despite this growth, the government has directed the PRA to further tighten the net to meet the ambitious Rs340 billion annual target set for FY 2025-26.
As part of the new “Tax Compliance Drive,” the PRA is making the Electronic Invoice Monitoring System (EIMS) mandatory for all Tier-1 retailers and service providers. Enforcement wings have already started sealing premises and seizing records of businesses that fail to issue integrated e-bills to customers.
“We are shifting from manual oversight to data-driven monitoring,” a PRA spokesperson stated. The authority is also recruiting 200 additional enforcement officers to expand its footprint from 16 to all 36 districts of Punjab.
To facilitate the public, the PRA has urged citizens to demand computer-generated receipts and verify them through the authority’s digital portal. The government maintains that these measures aim to document the economy and ensure that taxes collected from consumers actually reach the provincial treasury rather than being pocketed by tax-evading businesses.