ISLAMABAD: A National Assembly’s sub-committee Monday discussed anomalies regarding Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) valuation table on property tax with the stakeholders.
During the meeting, the sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization decided to have on-the-spot observation and consultation with stakeholders for evaluation of real-estate prices to help remove anomalies in the assessments.
The meeting of the committee was held here under the chairmanship of MNA Mian Abdul Mannan which among others was attended by MNA Syed Mustafa Mehmud, representatives from the FBR and real-estate stakeholders.
The chairman of the committee said that the body would visit Karachi soon to have thorough discussion with the provincial revenue departments and the real-stakeholders to have proper assessment of the property.
Similar meetings would also be held with the stakeholders of Lahore, Faisalabad and other cities, he added. He assured the real-estate representatives that the sub-committee was formed with the sole purpose to remove the anomalies, adding that the working on property prices was started in 2016 and this process would be completed within three years.
He said, evaluation was not focussed on enhancing revenues, rather it was aimed to properly evaluate the prices of property sector. He, however, dispelled the impression of the property stakeholders that the number of property transactions have reduced since this exercise has been started, adding that the number of transactions have actually gone up during the period.
He said that the committee was ready to addresses the issues of real estate, however, it was its right to verify the prices and value of properties in different cities of the country.
On the occasion, MNA Syed Mustafa Mehmud said that proper evaluation of properties was dire need of the hour to check black money, adding that it was unfortunate that the properties worth millions of rupees are shown of less prices in the documentation.
Earlier, the real-estate representatives highlighted various issues of property assessment adding that the evaluation made by the FBR has made higher than the Deputy Commissioner and market prices.
However, FBR advised them to send the details of the schemes where FBR evaluation is more than the DC prices and also send comparison of FBR evaluation with DC as well as market rates.