LAHORE: The Punjab Excise and Taxation (E&T) Department has arrested 25 officials on charges of sending inflated property tax notices to the consumers against the policy of the government.
The overbilling has been detected in different cities including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Toba Tek Singh, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat and Sheikhupura and the action has been taken after the chief minister took notice of the grave anomaly.
The arrested E&T officials included an assistant taxation officer and a clerk.
According to reports, the E&T director general office had sought details of all the officials involved in overbilling from all the E&T directors. The department launched a crackdown on the officials accused of mismanagement had started on November 27. These officials had sent property tax with a 100 per cent increase in June 2013 whereas the government had approved only a raise of 50 per cent.
On July 1 last year, the department had started a province-wide survey to evaluate property value.
The three-month survey was part of the department’s ‘reassessment operation 2013-14’. Not only the prevailing rents and property value were ascertained during the survey but re-categorisation of several colonies across the province was also carried out.
Following the survey, E&T officials had proposed a substantial increase in the property tax in line with raise in house rents. They said the proposal was not approved.
