Excise to streamline tax payments

The Excise Taxation and Narcotics Control Department (ETNCD) has set up a branch of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) in the Rawalpindi office for the timely recovery of all types of departmental taxes and fees.

The branch started operations on Friday. After Rawalpindi, the BoP branches will also be established in the excise offices of eight other divisional headquarters of Punjab.

The department has also started collecting property tax, professional tax, luxury tax, registration fee for new vehicles and miscellaneous challan route permit fees in the office branch, providing further ease to citizens and consumers. A biometric verification facility will also be available in this branch.

Customers will be able to submit their fees in the office as soon as they submit the documents for new registration of vehicles and transfer of old vehicles and motorcycles. This will be a one-window operation.

Meanwhile, the property section has so far failed to achieve of collecting property luxury and professional taxes for the first half (July-Dec) of the current financial year (FY25). So far, the department has only been able to achieve 38% of the target.

The prime reason for the drop in tax collection is to link property tax with the Deputy Commissioner (DC) property rate, for which the department has not yet been able to prepare a property tax bill and to get complete data regarding the DC property rate.

The work is in progress in this regard.

Sources in ETNCD say new property tax bills will be prepared from December 31 to January 10 according to the DC rate and sent to the taxpayers.

Meanwhile, the Excise Department is working on improving its tax collection process to meet the target for the second half of the financial year.

Efforts are underway to streamline the property tax system, including finalizing the integration with the Deputy Commissioner's property rate. The department is optimistic that the new property tax bills, which will reflect the updated DC rates, will help boost revenue collection and ensure a more efficient system. Additionally, the department is focusing on raising public awareness about the new biometric verification and one-window operation services to enhance convenience for citizens.