LAHORE: Deputy Commissioner Lahore Captain (Retd) Muhammad Ali Ejaz has banned the use of handwritten and unofficial receipts and activated a digital mechanism for the collection of fines across the district.
Under the Punjab Price Control Act 2024, all price control magistrates and relevant officers have been directed to implement government orders with immediate effect. The complete recovery and payment of fines in Lahore will now be carried out solely through e-Pay Punjab.
The Deputy Commissioner directed that the digital system be used to compile a complete record of fines and to ensure that recovered amounts are transferred immediately to the government treasury.
All price control magistrates have been instructed to avoid the collection of cash fines entirely and to record every penalty only in the official digital system.
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Magistrates have also been ordered to surrender old books of unofficial receipts to the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Enforcement) without delay.
The recall of physical receipt books closes the most common loophole in cash-based enforcement. So long as parallel books remain in circulation, a fine can be issued and collected without ever entering the official ledger, leaving no audit trail linking the penalty to the treasury.
Captain (Retd) Muhammad Ali Ejaz warned that strict legal action would be taken in cases involving the recovery of cash or unreported collections.
The Deputy Commissioner said the digital system would ensure transparency and accountability in price monitoring, and that the ban on cash fine collection would help eliminate corruption in financial matters.
“We are bringing a strict system of accountability into the work of price control magistrates,” he said, adding that modernising administrative processes was essential to ensure the supply of essential commodities at notified rates. Price monitoring in Lahore has now been made fully digital.
Price control enforcement in Punjab has long faced a credibility problem that is structural rather than personal. Magistrates operate with wide discretion over whether to fine, how much to fine and whether to compound an offence on the spot. Where that discretion is exercised through cash transactions recorded on loose receipts, the system produces neither deterrence for the trader nor revenue for the treasury.
Routing every penalty through e-Pay Punjab creates a timestamped record tied to a challan number, which can be reconciled against inspection logs. It also gives the district administration data it has not previously held — which markets are generating penalties, which magistrates are issuing them, and whether enforcement pressure is being applied evenly across the district.
The Deputy Commissioner said the district administration was working to supply essential commodities to Lahore’s citizens at notified prices, and that a culture of merit and transparency was being promoted at every level.
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