LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Wednesday called for downward revision of property tax rates for growth of businesses.
LCCI President Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa and Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan said that they had received complaints from its members against increase in property tax.
They claimed that industry located in rural areas was served tax notices on footage measurement basis by the TMOs, adding the area where industry was situated was considered as industrial area. Industry in rural area must not be treated as in urban area, they suggested.
Lahore Chamber’s office-bearers proposed that both the provincial and federal governments should come out with a formula about the maximum and minimum percentage of one’s income and what the person or people should expect in return. They said the government should initiate Public-Private Dialogue to resolve the issues of business doing people who were backbone of the economy.
They cited that in Lahore, Davis Road and MM Alam Road had been put in A category though commercial value of property at M M Alam Road is many times higher than that at Davis Road.
Moreover, the Excise Department determined the property tax on the basis of rent charged at M M Alam Road while the rental value at Davis Road was one-third, the added and called for addressing such issues to make the system more transparent.
The LCCI office-bearers suggested an increase of 50 per cent in property tax rate with a three years cascading formula (20-20-10) and relief for those who deposited their taxes by adjusting their remaining amount in the coming years.
They mentioned that Excise & Taxation Department had served notices with unprecedented increase in various markets which were then replaced by new notices with 50 per cent increase therein as mentioned by the E&T department. This process of serving notices should be revised, they maintained.
The office-bearers said the business community would not accept any increase in the commercial Property Tax rates and called for bringing down commercial rates to zero percent.
