Govt collects Rs500m in first 100 days of e-Pay app

Various payment channels being integrated in system to increase payment options for citizens

LAHORE: The Punjab government has collected over Rs500 million in just 100 days through the e-Pay mobile application, the first ever government payment aggregator.

Presiding over a progress review meeting of the e-payment initiative of the provincial government on Wednesday, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Chairman Azfar Manzoor highlighted that the project has enhanced ease of doing business through citizen facilitation. “The project has helped the government to enhance the collection of multiple levies across Punjab.” He said the project was launched on October 4, last year, as a collaborative endeavour between the PITB and Punjab Finance department to provide the general public an efficient and stress-free method of paying all taxes and payments to the government using ICT tools, without going through the existing cumbersome process.

The e-Pay application has been rolled and now various new payment channels including debit and credit card, mobile wallets and direct debit from the account, are being integrated with the system to increase payment options to facilitate maximum number of citizens, he maintained.

He disclosed that it is also being planned to incorporate government-to-public (G2P) and government-to-business (G2B) payment through this platform. It will help in broadening the project following the addition of tax and non-tax receipts, utility bills payments, online admission fee deposits of schools and colleges, driving license fees, e-challan, character certificate, domicile, commercial vehicles’ fitness certificate fee and agriculture income tax, he elaborated.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2020.