LAHORE: The Excise Taxation and Narcotics Control Department (ETCD) has planned to propose a property tax on five-marla houses.
Sources said that since the government wanted to avoid imposing new taxes in the budget, it turned the proposal down. The excise department, however, has decided to send a fresh proposal to the government.
Initially, the excise department had kept five-marla houses out of the tax net due to their low revenue generation, although owners of five-marla houses in some upscale areas were being taxed. Now, the excise department plans to increase its annual revenue by Rs800 million by bringing all five-marla houses into the tax net.
A senior government official said that the excise department should not put a further burden on low-income people as people were already paying a lot of direct and indirect taxes.
