SBP appoints BOP its agent for collecting receipts, taxes of Punjab

KARACHI (Web Desk/APP):- State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has appointed Bank of Punjab (BOP) as its agent for collecting provincial receipts and taxes of Government of Punjab (GoP).

The signing ceremony held here on Monday, said SBP statement. The appointment is a part of SBP's strategy to facilitate the Federal and Provincial Governments in improving their tax collection system.

This would diversify tax payment options for the tax payers, introduce much needed competition in Governments' tax collection business and thus will improve the service quality of banks engaged in government tax collection business.

Speaking on the occasion, SBP's Executive Director, Syed Irfan Ali said that State Bank, being banker to the Federal and Provincial Governments, was fully committed to provide efficient, competitive and state-of-the-art banking services to the governments either by itself or through its agencies across the country.

He expressed his optimism that inclusion of BOP will give a boost to the provincial government's efforts to facilitate tax payers in payment of government dues and taxes.

He said, based on the experience of BOP, similar arrangements would be made with other provincial governments to collect their taxes through banks of their choice.

BOP's President Naeemuddin Khan thanked SBP and Federal Government for posing confidence for collecting the Punjab Government taxes.

He said that the agency agreement with SBP was a major milestone achieved and assured that the customer facilitation and convenience will be the hallmark of the BOP's agency business, which would set new standards for the industry to follow.