Five-marla houses: Residents asked to pay tax despite waiver

The executive officers of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cants were not immediately available for comments.


April 18, 2011

RAWALPINDI:


Thousands of low-income families living in below five-marla residences in Rawalpindi Cantonment have been asked to pay the annual house tax.


This came as a shock since the provincial government had passed a law about four years back excluding them from the house tax.

The anxious dwellers rushed to the cantonment board offices to inquire about the waiver on house tax, only to discover that they would have to provide a “house map” or any similar drawing to the authorities to avail the waiver.

What makes matters worse is that over half of these houses are three decades old  and their owners do not have the maps to prove their eligibility. The law does not require an owner to produce the map.

“My father built the house on four marlas in the early 1970s,” said Ameer Khan, who lives in Adra. “There is no trace of the blueprint in our late father’s papers,” he said.

“It was after much effort that we were able to get hold of the registry only,” he added. The registry will help the officials determine whether the house has been built on a plot of land measuring five marlas or less.

Another elderly woman named Shamim of Tench Bhata said, “The authorities just want us to keep making rounds of their offices.”

The executive officers of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cants were not immediately available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th,  2011.

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