LAHORE: The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) on Thursday achieved its target of installing electronic Restaurants Invoice Monitoring System (RIMS) at 50 restaurants in posh localities of the provincial capital to calculate 16 percent sales tax.

Majority of restaurants where RIMS has been installed with the help of the Pakistan Revenue Automated Limited and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) for e-monitoring of billing invoices are situated on MM Alam Road and Mehmood Kasuri Road of Gulberg.

The authorities plan to install the system, which officials claim, will completely reduce the under-invoicing through round-the-clock monitoring in 150 more restaurants in areas of Defence, Main Boulevard Gulberg, Johar Town and other selected places by the end of November.

A senior official privy to the project told Dawn a presentation about successful installation of RIMS at 50 restaurants had been given to PRA Chairman Raheel Ahmad Siddiqui who ordered to extend the system to other restaurants on a fast-track basis. He said the PRA had also installed RIMS at three restaurants of Faletti`s Hotel and was considering installing it at PC Hotel, Avari Hotel and Hospitality Inn.

He said the new e-system would also help redress the grievances of restaurant owners against field tax officials` blackmailing. He said the Punjab government had approved Rs1.2 million for RIMs cell at the operations office of the PRA, adding LEDs, database servers, monitoring devices and logistics would be purchased for the cell which would have big screens to monitor RIMS-installed restaurants.

The official said the PRA would provide desktop computers to those restaurant owners who were not IT-savvy and rather generating manual bill invoices.