ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has unearthed huge untaxed investment in real estate sector in the federal capital.
According to the FBR documents based on the Capital Development Authority data, as many as 6,348 rich individuals from across the country invested in 3,530 residential and 2,818 commercial properties worth over Rs106 billion from 2014 to 2017, as per DC rates. The real value at which these purchases have been made would be far higher.
Most of the people from Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar invested in real estate investments. Details of the investors, and their transactions, were sent to 15 regional tax offices around the country a few weeks ago, with instructions to issue notices and ask for source of income and taxes paid by each.
Almost half of these people did not even exist on the tax roll – meaning they have no national tax number. The residents of Islamabad topped the list in real estate transactions. As many as 3,617 people, almost half of the total, have done transactions worth Rs56.8 billion in residential and commercial properties. The second highest transactions in real estate came from 935 residents of Rawalpindi, at Rs12.4 billion. From Peshawar, 667 residents invested Rs10.7 billion in 417 residential and 250 commercial properties.
Fourth on the list is Karachi whose residents made transactions of Rs9.3 billion in 288 residential and 136 commercial properties. These cases have been sent to their respective RTOs of Karachi for further action – 212 cases to RTO III; 83 cases to Corporate RTO; 87 cases to RTO II; and 42 cases to the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU).
In Lahore, 329 people made transactions in 244 residential and 85 commercial properties worth Rs5.7 billion. Of these, 203 were registered in RTO II, while 136 in CRTO.
Further analysis shows that 108 residents registered with the RTO Abbottabad made transactions of Rs3.5 billion in 63 residential and 20 commercial properties, 103 people invested Rs5.7 billion in 41 residential and 62 commercial properties in Quetta; 57 people in 35 residential and 22 commercial properties worth Rs1.3 billion in Faisalabad; 55 people in 28 residential and 27 commercial properties worth Rs673.8m in Sialkot; and Rs334.3m were invested in Sargodha’s 21 residential and 22 commercial properties.
