KARACHI: Business community has raised voice against discrimination in fixing valuation of immovable industrial build-up properties only for Sindh by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as such values are not application in other provinces of the country.
In a letter to Miftah Ismail, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, the SITE Association of Trade and Industry said FBR through Notification SRO 18(I0/2018 dated 10th January, 2018 made amendments in its Notification SRO 662(I)/2016 dated 2nd August, 2016 and appreciate the revision of FBR valuation rates to redress the grievances but still there is discrimination in the revised rates among the Industrial areas of Karachi, Sindh and the Provinces.
(1) It is pertinent to note that Value per sq. foot of the built up area is only imposed for Sindh Province while value per sq. foot of the built up area is not applicable to any of the other province of Pakistan which shows clear discrimination.
(2) In Karachi, the Industries fall under Category-I and Category-II but regrettably the rates of Industrial built up property per sq. ft. @1905/- for Category-I and @ Rs.3000\- for Category-II while rates of Industrial open plot per sq. yard are @ Rs.9,603/- for Category-I and @ Rs.8,000/- for Category-II which is neither ethical nor justifiable.
(3) Everywhere, the average new construction rates for industrial plots are Rs.800/- to Rs.1000/- per sq. ft. which bears a load bearing capacity of 200 pound per square feet and this again is not ethical nor justifiable and we are surprised that The government has fixed rates for built up (old construction) at 1905/- per sq. ft. for Category-I and Rs.3,000/- per sq. ft. for Category-II which no one calculates more than Rs.300 per sq. ft.
Karachi is currently contributing 54% of total taxes collected by FBR. It seems that FBR has planned to further squeeze Karachiites in the name of revised rates of valuation of immovable properties.
In order to have a justified valuation of industrial properties of Karachi, we suggest that Value per sq. foot of the built up area of 1905/- to Rs.3,000/- per sq. ft. should be removed and Rates of Industrial open plot per sq. yard be reduced at a certain percentage of the fair market value.
Further, Scale and categorization of immovable property is not uniform across the country as mentioned below.
Sindh – Karachi, Hyderabad & Sukkur – Scale has been categorized in SQ. YARD under Residential, Commercial and Industrial Plots (further divided into built up and open plots) in comparison to other cities of provinces
Punjab – Lahore, Faisalabad & Sialkot– Scale is in MARLA and categorized under Residential and Commercial Plots (no industrial category) and not on built up area also.
Balochistan – Quetta – Scale is in SQ. FT. and categorized as Commercial & Non-commercial (no industrial category) and not on built up area also.
KPK – Peshawar – Scale is in MARLA and categorized as Residential and Commercial (no industrial category) and not on built up area also.
It is pertinent to state here that the plot areas are different in the same Scale i.e. One Marla in Sialkot and Faisalabad is equal to 30.25 sq. yards and one Marla in Lahore is equal to 25 sq. yards.
The association urged the adviser to intervene in the matter and given necessary instruction to FBR to take the genuine stakeholders on board for consultation and fixation of a most proper and logical uniform scale and rates across the county without any discrimination.
