After the successful roll-out of RIMS (restaurant invoice monitoring system), the Punjab Revenue Authority has now developed beauty parlours invoice monitoring system (BIMS) in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board. A meeting in this regard was held with Hair and Beauty Salons Association here on Thursday at PRA main building. Representatives of Hair and Beauty Salons Association were formally invited to get themselves updated on the recent developments.

A number of leading members from the association attended the meeting. Recently, PRA initiated a summary wherein a reduced rate scheme for the beauty parlours has been approved by the government of Punjab. At present, registration in beauty services sector stands only at 287 registered tax payers yielding about 3 to 4 million a month. Previously, the PRA conducted a workshop with beauticians and owners of such salons. Thereafter, the Pakistan Hair and Beauty Association filed a representation before the Punjab Revenue Authority to sympathetically consider the beauty services sector's plea for reducing the rate of sales tax on hair and beauty parlours to around 5 percent. After a series of meetings to figure out a workable option, it was also mutually resolved that the proposed reduction in the sales tax rate will be admissible for only those who opt for invoice monitoring system which will be installed on their business premises for monitoring the sales invoices on real time basis.

During the meeting, representatives of the association promised full support for bringing their members into sales tax net and ensured further co-operation for installation of the new system at their business premises. Details of the reward scheme on the lines of the reward scheme for RIMS were also shared. It was also decided to hold a meeting again in the coming week to finalise the modalities of this newly-installed system. The Punjab Revenue Authority is actively working on enhancing the geographical outreach of such monitoring systems to other cities of Punjab.

The Authority is expecting that once BIMS is implemented, the revenue from that sector will also improve considerably as has happened with the restaurant sector. At the same time, the Punjab Revenue Authority, with its aim of improving tax compliance in the country, has expressed its keen desire and interest in sharing its experiential knowledge with other tax collection agencies of Pakistan for which purpose it is in the process of setting up an advance training and research facility.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017