In Rawalpindi,housing societies found evading billions in stamp duty

Audit shows 40 Rawalpindi district schemes paid only Rs200m under the head

RAWALPINDI: The revenue department of the Punjab government has discovered during a recent audit that big housing societies in the Rawalpindi district have saved millions of rupees by evading stamp duty in property deals.

The audit, done on requisition of district revenue department, identified that some 40 legal housing societies, collectively, deposited only Rs200 million in the treasury under stamp duty.

The audit officials have found gross irregularities on part of housing societies. Officials of the revenue department said that if only two housing societies had earnestly deposited the stamp duty, the amount would have been higher than Rs200 million.

In this regard, Rawalpindi Revenue Department Special Magistrate Iqbal Sanghera, replying to a question by The Express Tribune said that all of the defaulting housing societies would be issued notices to clear outstanding dues of stamp duty after completion of the audit process.

Following the notices, he added that, societies refusing to clear their dues would be issued notices thrice according to law and if they still refused to do so, their entire land area would be confiscated.

According to revenue officials, the audit teams have sought records of the 40 housing societies in the district and started investigations.

The provincial government had made it compulsory to pay stamp duty on transfer of property, be it plot or building. The government and private housing societies had been barred from sale of plots on letters.

However, so far during the fiscal, only 40 legal housing societies deposited Rs200 million under stamp duty, which was far below the estimates of the revenue department.

The department declared the amount ‘inadequate’ and pleaded the high officials for conducting an audit in this regard.

The competent authority in Lahore sent special teams comprising audit professionals to Rawalpindi. The audit teams have discovered during the initial examination of the record that only two of 40 housing societies have outstanding dues of Rs180 million under stamp duty. One owes Rs130 million and the other Rs30 million to the provincial exchequer under the head of stamp duty, officials said.

This is the tax evasion by the legally authorised housing societies, whereas, there are dozens of housing societies thriving in Rawalpindi under the nose of the authorities, officials said.

During the last week, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) had demolished site offices four illegal housing authorities in the district.

These societies were not only causing billions of rupees worth of losses to the exchequer in terms of unpaid taxes in duties, but also putting at risk the hard-earned money of people buying their plots.

RDA had demolished site office of Bank Colony, Phase-II an illegal housing scheme, Chakri Road and sealed two site offices of Al-Rahman City and Pak Sarzameen Town. The development work of Mahmood Town Chakri Road was also stopped.

RDA enforcement team had also launched an operation to remove encroachments from different areas. He advised the general public not to invest in any illegal and unauthorized Housing Scheme and check status of housing projects before investment.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2019.