LAHORE         -          EPay Punjab, the first ever government payment aggregator for citizen facilitation and ease of business, has collected over Rs1 billion revenue from multiple levies since its launch five months back.

This was informed in a progress review meeting of Punjab Information Technology Board presided over by Chairman PITB Azfar Manzoor on Thursday. Director General IT Operations Faisal Yousaf and other senior officials participated in the meeting.

EPay Punjab was launched on October 4 last year as a collaborative endeavor of Finance Department and PITB. The system provides general public a stress-free and efficient method of paying all taxes through contemporary banking channels; without going through the existing cumbersome process.

The meeting was informed that multiple new payment channels like Debit/Credit Card, Mobile Wallets, TELCO Agent Networks and Direct Debit from Account were being added to further increase the payment options.

Additionally, it is also planned to include Government to Public (G2P) and Government to Business (G2B) payment models in future to broaden the horizon of the programme and also add Tax/Non-Tax receipts like Online Admission for Colleges/Schools Fee, Driving License Fee, e-Challan, Character Certificate, Domicile, Fitness Certificate (Commercial Vehicles) and Agriculture Income Tax.

In its first phase, 13 taxes/levies of 5 departments are made part of the system. Excise & Taxation, Board of Revenue (BOR), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Industries and Transport are the departments liaised with the system, where citizens can pay Token Tax, Motor Vehicle Registration, Transfer of Motor Vehicle, Property Tax, Professional Tax, Cotton fee, e-Stamping, Mutation fee, Fard fee, Sales Tax on Services, Punjab Infrastructural Development CESS, Business Registration fee and Route permit through e-pay Punjab.