RAWALPINDI: Despite orders of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the Excise and Taxation Department has not spared owners of owners of up to five -marla homes and started levying property tax on their houses.
Shahbaz Sharif had directed Excise and Taxation Department all over the province last year to stop levying property tax on houses up to five marla till further notification. He also ordered the concerned department to send him a detailed summary of taxes and till his further orders Excise and Taxation Department staff was prohibited from taking any action against owners of houses in this regard.
But totally ignoring the orders of the CM, the Excise and Taxation Department continued levying property tax on owners of up to five marla houses even last year. Till last year, the tax was levied at Rs2,000 per home, however now the Excise and Taxation Department has increased the tax manifold and started charging Rs16,000 per house for a five marla house. In the similar manner, the property tax, which was charged at Rs15,000 last year for houses up to 7-8 marlas has now been increased upto Rs115,000.
When contacted Excise and Taxation Officer (Property Tax) Riaz Qureshi, he admitted all facts and figures saying “we are obeying the orders of Punjab government. We are collecting taxes without any discrimination.” When asked to show any notification for implementation of property tax on houses upto five marla houses and locking houses over non-payment of property tax, he did not furnish any such document, however he claimed that the department has clear instructions from the higher ups to lock any houses, whose owner fails to pay property tax. Riaz Qureshi said if anybody did not pay property tax they will lock his house immediately.
According to collected information from Excise and Taxation Department (E&TD), Rawalpindi, concerned department had locked around 4,000 houses upto five marlas of land or less in different localities of Rawalpindi for non-payment of property tax.
Interestingly, all houses up to 5 marlas were exempted from property tax by the government. But the concerned department was collecting taxes from owners of even less than 5-marla houses from the back date of 2004. Reacting sharply to the issuance of notices for payment of property tax at highly inflated rates, the citizens have appealed to the Punjab chief minister to take notice of this injustice of inflated property tax and issue orders for its withdrawal forthwith warning if their demand is not met they will no other option but to stage sit-ins and hold protest rallies.
The affected people said that the Excise and Taxation Department staff is continuously harassing them. The inspectors of Excise and Taxation are threatening to lock their houses or they would be send to jail, the affectees alleged. Niaz Ahmed, a resident of Sadiqabad said that he and his family are living in constant state of fear because Excise and Taxation officers visit his house everyday. “I have already paid my property tax, but despite doing so, the concerned officials are teasing me,” he claimed.
Muhammad Arshad Arshi, another resident of Sadiqabad said that the Excise and Taxation Department officials some months back locked his house for four days. “Now, once again they were issuing notices for auctioning of his house. “I am a taxi driver and I cannot pay such a huge amount,” he said. He also said that concerned officials are not ready to
