Online payment system e-Pay of the Punjab province will be linked to the Raast system of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to automatically transfer the provincial collections into the SBP coffers. Finance Department of the province has said that in future VISA, Mastercard and UnionPay will also be integrated into the e-Pay system to make it easier for the people to conduct online transactions.

The integration of e-Pay with Raast is a strand of the same strategy, according to the provincial Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari. He disclosed this information while chairing a meeting of the Finance Department on e-Pay and the broadening of its services. He said, “e-Pay represents the commitment of the provincial government to embrace digital technologies to make it easier for the people to conduct online transactions.

It will also help in the rooting out of corruption. People will start to trust the public authorities more and as a consequence revenue collection will increase.” He continued by saying that improved services will also help increase tax collections. The meeting was also attended by the Finance Secretary Wasif Khurshid, Special Secretary of Finance, Additional Secretary, and other officials from the Finance department and PITB.

The meeting was told by the Project Director of e-Bay Punjab that 10 government departments have already started to make online transactions through the e-Pay system. Total transactions by these 10 departments number 22. 

This has started a process of introducing transparency in the tax system under the Finance Department and its Ease of Doing Business initiative. “Over-all,” he continued, “23 million transactions and more than 128 million receipts have been generated through the said application,” adding that the “application’s annual success graph is showing more improvements than before.”

Finance Department of the Punjab province has taken approval of the provincial cabinet to link e-Pay with the Raast database and the MoU for the same purpose will be duly signed between the SBP and the Finance Department of the Punjab province.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk