More than 19 Billion PKR -Islamabad Excise Breaks all Previous Records of Tax Collection

The citizens are ready to pay taxes if they are facilitated : Bilal Azam Director Islamabad Excise

Tazeen Akhtar + Eyab Ahmad Abbasi

At a time when the country is facing huge financial crisis and the government had to take tough decisions to avoid default, the only hope for future of this country lies in tax collection and revenue generation. Excise and Taxation Islamabad has proved itself equal to the task by reaching a milestone of three times higher number of collection in last financial year.

Islamabad Excise has collected record revenue in the year 2021-22 that is 19 Billion PKR. It is more than 300% increase with respect to 6.26 B PKR in 2017-18. Director Bilal Azam is determined to take this number more higher position with the cooperation of his staff and the citizens of Capital Territory.

Islamabad Excise breaks all previous records of tax collection. In the year 2021-22, a record tax collection of over Rs. 19 billion was made. Rs 13 billion was collected in the form of excise taxes. The Excise Department collected Rs. 6 billion in FBR tax. Last year, the total tax collection was Rs 11.32 billion. In the last five years, tax collection has increased from Rs 6 billion to Rs 19 billion. Compared to last year, 72% more taxes were collected this year.

We called on Director Bilal Azam to encourage him and to know how this success become possible. Bilal said, ” The record increase in tax collection is possible thanks to the policies of Chief Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmed and the patronage of DC Irfan Memon. The department opted to two points strategy to reach this number:

1- Facilitate the Citizen to pay their taxes and they pay it. They want to pay tax but difficult procedures are the main hurdles for them.

2- Introduction of Technology that helped the department as well as the tax payers to pay it from their own home through our customized app and other facilities that produced conveniences for the citizen

He said , “Vehicle registration and transfer is the main activity in our department. For that the Bio Metric System BMS is working for attestation. This system has been introduced in all NADRA E-Sahulat centers throughout the country. The number of centers is about 35 thousand.”

After the initiative of Biometric Verification System, the presence of seller of vehicle is not mandatory. In number of cases the department observed that the transfer of ownership has been got by the purchaser fraudulently and by presenting fake/fabricated transfer letter. The department was facing litigation in the Courts of law in this regard. After implementation of Biometric verification system there is zero chance of getting a vehicle transferred fraudulently or illegally, the number of fraudulently or illegally registration / transfer cases has been decreased.

The said system has been introduced to make the whole process transparent and to axe the involvement of agent mafia. Currently this facility is available at e-sahulat centers of NADRA in all over the Pakistan. With the start of Biometric Verification, the number of transfers has been increased 2 times in Excise & Taxation Department Islamabad, simultaneously revenue generated through transfer of vehicles is increase and more than 01 billion rupees have been collected in this regard.

Mr. Bilal noted, “The benefits of BMS are : There is no concept of unknown vehicle now on, Misuse of authority in producing the seller and the purchaser came to end, Last owner is well known, Revenue increased.”

“The owners were running vehicles on open letters for decades. No one knew who is the last owner. Now the BMS expires every two months. This assures continuously BMS by the owners. Every day 100 to 1000 vehicles are being transferred. It is bringing revenue and on the other hand the last owner is clear. It helps law enforcing agencies in case of any crime,” He continued.

Bilal Azam shared that the citizens need not visit our offices for registration, transfer or for Token Tax. They can pay by visiting our customized app for that purpose. Other than that , our mobile vehicle equipped with all apparatus moves at public places on peak times like when people have walk at main parks of the city. Mobile is available at F-9 Park, Rose and Jasmine Garden, Kashnar Park and Trail 3. At Saturdays, it is present at Islamabad Club.

The E & T launched new initiative in which Excise vehicles will be stationed at different places of ICT. Therefore, any applicant who intends to get his/her vehicle registered, could visit the said spot alongwith the vehicle and allied documents to get the registration/ transfer and token tax work done.

Online Appointment System has been initiated for registration / transfer of vehicles. The general public can post the registration / transfer form online, after initial data entry the system has generated an appointment number and also intimate at which time and date he will approach the office for registration / transfer of vehicle a separate counter has also been designated in the premises for the said purpose. After the online appointment system, the general public had been facilitated for registration / transfer of their respective vehicle without standing in long queue at department.

The department has allocated two phone numbers 051-90395386 / 051-2775386 for public to call the mobile at their door step. This facility is provided for all services including registration, transfer, BMS, Physical Examination etc.

The E & T has provided at door step, vehicles registration service for facilitation of general public in collaboration with NADRA. The applicants can call on call center,take appointment and the staff visits the residence of applicants for completing due process and the applicant’s vehicles are registered at their doorstep.

The Director said, “Hotel Bed Tax recovery improved manifold during last year. Earlier only 3 to 4 hundred thousand pkr were collected from all hotels of Islamabad. Now 3 to 4 Karor rupees are collected from only 2 big hotels per year.”

” This achievement is the result of dedication of the staff and thanks to the use of new technology in which human authority is not present,” Bilal Azam replied to a question.

Islamabad Excise has liaison with Securities and Exchange Commission for streamlining the Professional Tax. In order to bringing the business/professions to tax net the Excise & Taxation Department has planned to integrate the data with Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), as any company get registered with the SECP it automatically gets intimated in the MVRS of Excise Department and same can be used as and when required.

Real Estate and Motor Vehicle Dealers through their representative unions were invited to register themselves. They were convinced that they can get registered according to their own convenience and for their own benefit. Their database has been prepared to make their payment of taxes.

The field staffs of E&T are also daily conducting surveys regarding registration of real estate agents and motor vehicle dealers throughout the Islamabad. 2500 real estate agent and motor vehicle dealers have been registered under the ordinance of Islamabad Real Estate Agents and Motor Vehicles Dealer 1984, millions of rupees have been collected in this regard.

Bilal Azam briefed “A large number of general public visits the Excise & Taxation Office on daily basis for payment of Road Tax / Token Tax. The Excise and Taxation Department has signed an MOU with National Bank of Pakistan regarding collection of Road Tax and also provides the online interface to post offices of Islamabad. Now, the general public pays the Road Tax / Token Tax at all branches of National Bank of Pakistan and 10 designated Post Offices in Islamabad. The token tax payment made at National Bank of Pakistan and Post Offices can be reconciled in real time with the database of E&T Islamabad.”

Moreover, the applicant can also pay the Road Tax through mobile City App and payment made at E-Sahulat Center of NADRA. The above said services have enabled the vehicles owner to pay Road Tax / Token Tax of their respective vehicle easily instead of standing in long queue in the department. Simultaneously revenue generated through Road Tax / Token Tax of vehicles is increase in 2 times. The E&T Department is also working on One-link and mobile wallet and in near future this facility will be also launched for collection of Road Tax / Token Tax.

Tobacco Control is a big challenge for authorities. The E&T has started the crackdown regarding tobacco control under Tobacco Control Act -1958 and in this regard about 1300 notices have already been issued to defaulters and illegal sellers of Tobacco in the Islamabad Capital Territory. The field staff have collected millions of rupees against the registration of tobacco vender’s fee. Moreover, E&T with the collaboration of Ministry of Health has also started an active campaign for making the Islamabad Smoke Free City.

SoPs regarding tobacco control include prohibition of sale to less than 18 years old customers, the shop should not be opened around a certain area of schools and colleges, the vender should clearly share that tobacco is bad for health, no smuggled cigarettes or Sheesha can be sold etc.

E&T has paid serious attention towards recovering up of non-custom paid and stolen vehicles. In this regard, firstly the field staff were trained by the Forensic Staff and then operation started against such vehicles which turned up into massive recovery. 221+ stolen vehicles have been handed over to the Punjab Police of respective areas.

The department has established accessible information desk in the premises for applicants on the directions of PMDU. The staff has also been deputed in this regard. The designated staff will fill up the online and manual forms for applicants.

Bilal Azam shared “E&T Islamabad is also connected with Customs and FBR for imported vehicles pre-verification process and filer/non-filer status of applicants. We are also in administrative process of online verification of documents for locally manufactured vehicles to facilitate the general public and for making public service delivery better. The SOP in this regard has already been finalized after its successful implementation this can be adopted by the provinces and it will create centralized pool of database for verification of locally manufactured vehicles.”

He further informed that for ease and convenience of general public and to redress their grievances a complaint cell has been established at Excise & Taxation Department, Islamabad. A designated landline No. has been provided for facilitation of general public.

Taxation is the most disliked thing in Pakistani society but the discussion with Mr. Bilal Azam took us to conclusion that people are ready to pay their taxes if they are provided easy procedures and cooperative guideline from the authorities. E&T Islamabad has proved that if the concerned officers and staff help the citizen in performance of their duties towards the state , better results can be achieved.