Rooting out corruption: Office of excise and taxation dept raided

Property tax records seized during raid

SUKKUR: A team of anti-corruption department along with the civil judge raided the office of the excise and taxation department in Mirpur Mathelo on Wednesday and seized records pertaining to property tax.

Ghotki anti-corruption assistant director Saifullah Phulpoto, along with the second civil judge and judicial magistrate of Mirpur Mathelo, Samiullah Qureshi, raided the office following complaints of massive corruption in property tax.

While the excise and taxation officer was not there at the office, other staff members, including inspectors, managed to escape. The anti-corruption team took into custody the available records of the property tax. They also sealed the locked cabinets containing property tax and other records as there was nobody left in the office to open them for inspection.

When contacted, Phulpoto told The Express Tribune that complaints regarding massive corruption in property tax were pouring in since long. He said that the excise and taxation officer and his inspectors used to send challans of huge amount to the property owners and when such people came to their office for bargain they slashed the amount to half.

According to Phulpoto, after pocketing the huge amounts the officials issued challans of minimal charges to the property owners. “We have sealed the cabinets of the excise and taxation office and after getting the keys from the staff we will open them and seize the records,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2015.