LAHORE: Government of the Punjab has increased the target of property tax for fiscal year 2014-15 for Excise department. Rs 550 million are added to the total target of the year.
According to sources, Government of the Punjab has revised the target of property tax from Rs8.14 billion to Rs8.69 billion for the fiscal year 2014-15. In budget government allocated a target or Rs 8.14 billion for Excise Punjab in the sense of property tax. In this regard Excise directorate has issued direction to all officers concernedand directors in the Punjab to recover their amounts by keeping their targets in view.
Excise high authorities have set new targets for all regions after increasing total targets for the year of 2014-15. Excise and Taxation department has collected 66 percent of the target up to 31stJanuary 2015 which is 33 percent more than last year’s collection of the same period.
The Excise and Taxation Department has recovered Rs 5080.721 million from July to 31 January 2015 which is new record. The department has recovered Rs 1267.96 million more as compared to the revenue generated during the same period of the last year.
Collection of property tax is satisfactory in first six months of the fiscal year but collection of other taxes is not up to the mark. In this regard Secretary Excise has directed the officers to take all necessary steps to chase their targets.
Now after 31 January Excise has started issuing notices with three percent penalty on property tax for the defaulters who failed to submit their taxes.
There were 160,000 defaulters in Lahore who failed to pay their property tax till end of December. After sending notices with two percent fine, a number of defaulters paid their taxes with two percent fine but a large number of people have failed to do so.
After the increment in total target guidelines and notices are issued to the Directors to achieve new targets within the set time. Meanwhile recovery staff believes this is a doable job.
