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LAHORE: The Punjab Excise and Taxation Department is working with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) to create a cutting-edge dashboard that will improve the department’s ability to track and report on federal and provincial revenue, as well as specific information about vehicles in the province. The goal is to make revenue monitoring more transparent and efficient.
The government agency claims that one of the most important features of the dashboard will be the ability to sort revenue data according to vehicle types. Furthermore, the system will display the results of tax reforms, providing useful information for future enhancements. The project’s overarching goal is to compare data from previous and current registrations in order to determine how well the new system is working. Additional changes to the tax system can be outlined in it.
Director General of Excise and Taxation Punjab Umar Sher Chattha presided over a meeting to examine the dashboard proposal in this regard. The meeting was attended by the Managing Director of the PITB, Qamar-ul-Hassan, the Director of Enforcement and Audit, and Muhammad Saleem, the Director of IT for Excise in Pakistan.
At this meeting, the PITB group briefed the department on the planned dashboard in detail and offered suggestions to make sure it would meet their operational requirements.
The IT team was directed to integrate property tax data into the dashboard alongside token tax and vehicle registration fees. The importance of separating federal and provincial collections for easier comparison was also highlighted.
The Enforcement Director suggested including field operation revenue data in the dashboard to enhance its effectiveness for operational monitoring. The ongoing field operations for vehicle registration and token tax collection across Punjab, led by Secretary Masood Mukhtar and DG Umar Sher Chattha, have been underway since January 1. Key regions targeted include Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, DG Khan, Gujrat, and Region D. These operations have led to the recovery of millions in token taxes.
The meeting revealed that strict measures have been taken against unregistered vehicles, with thousands of fake number plates seized. In a recent operation across over 35 checkpoints, 10,355 vehicles were inspected. Among them, 310 were unregistered, 548 had fake number plates, and 1,027 were defaulters in token tax payments. The result was an immediate recovery of Rs12.5 million.
Umar Sher Chattha urged citizens to fulfill their legal obligations by paying taxes and refraining from using fake number plates. He explained that these operations are meant to ensure compliance and accountability, not to cause inconvenience to vehicle owners. In the upcoming phase, stricter measures will be enforced, including impounding unregistered vehicles and increasing penalties for late token tax payments.
