Punjab govt may waive property tax for 24 UCs of RMC

Residents of these urbanised areas will pay due taxes prior to merger in Nov 2019

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has decided to waive off property tax for the residents of the 24 newly-merged rural Union Councils (UCs) of Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) after the promulgation of the new local government system in the province.

The residents of these UCs have been exempted from paying property tax prior to November 2019, when these areas lost their rural status and became urban UCs of RMC, Punjab Parliamentary Secretary for Revenue Adnan Chaudhry confirmed this while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has formally approved this decision and a notification in this regard was expected to be issued in the coming days, he said.

Earlier, more than 10,000 residents of these 24 UCs received huge property tax bills of up to 10 years from the excise department and they were asked to pay millions of rupees in a given deadline, Chaudhry said. However, people of these areas, who had enjoyed tax-free status till becoming urbanised before November 2019, pursued the MNAs and MPAs of their constituencies to explain the situation to the government.

Subsequently, the CM taking notice of the issue ordered withdrawal of the property tax notices.

He said that all UCs falling under the rural domain before promulgation of the new local government system have been exempted from paying property and cleanliness taxes, contending that they were merged in the metropolitan corporation in November 2019 and these taxes were not applicable on the locals dwelling in these areas prior to merger.

Chaudhry said that the related UCs would now be brought under the tax net and the government would ensure basic amenities to the citizens. Further, the UC Rehmatabad Former Chairman Taj Abbasi said that the excise department issued property tax notices illegally. After successful dialogues with the provincial law minister and lawmakers from Rawalpindi, the government has decided to waive off taxes on the residents of erstwhile rural councils, he said.

The ex-chairman said that they were ready to pay every kind of tax after the merger.

RDA to outsource building checking

In a bid to bring transparency in identifying illegal constructions in its controlled areas, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has decided to outsource the process of field inspection.

In this regard, the authority has invited bids of  Expression of Interest (EOI) from interested firms. The trend of creeping illegal establishments has risen over the years due to ill-performance of the field staff and their alleged corruption. Sources in RDA said that the contract would be outsourced for hiring services of firms for the identification of illegal constructions in the RDA controlled areas.

The building inspectors would be authorised to issue notices to the owners of illegal buildings and initiate action against them. Consequently, it would become mandatory for the owners of such constructions to get their structures regularised after paying heavy fines.

Sources added that the buildings that could not be brought under the legal bracket would be demolished followed by legal action against the owners. Sources are optimistic that even if RDA attains half success in this experimentation of outsourcing building inspectors, the revenue generated is to surge considerably.

Besides the revenue aspect, the outsourcing may halt as well as discourage the practice of constructing residential and commercial buildings to a large extent and the owners would resort to getting their building plans approved from the authority before initiating construction.

RDA approves parking plaza

Rawalpindi Development Authority has granted approval to construct new commercial motorcycle parking area for people working in 10 big and 20 small markets of the city to resolve traffic problems created due to encroachment. The Parking Plaza will be constructed around the huge nullah in Naya Muhalla behind Colonel Maqbool Hussain Imambargah. It has the capacity for parking more than 1,500 motorcycles. Representative bodies of traders have welcomed the decision.

Shopkeepers and salesmen of Raja Bazaar, Moti Bazaar, Bohar Bazar, Mochi Bazar, Kalan Bazar, Iqbal Road, College Road, Alam Khan Road, Bara Bazar, Trunk Bazar and all the small market shops adjacent would park their motorcycles in the Parking Plaza.

In these markets, motorbikes were parked from 9am to 9pm due to which a permanent encroachment of five feet on both sides of the roads have emerged in all these markets is formed. Due to this the business activities have become cumbersome.

RDA Chairman Tariq Murtaza along with business community leaders Tahir Taj Bhatti, Naveed Kanwal, Chaudhry Iqbal and other traders recently visited the markets and the area to see the on-ground situation for the project. Murtaza told the traders that if their  salesmen keep their two-wheelers in the parking area, more customers would be able to park their bikes in markets. Subsequently, more customers  would come to the bazaar and boost sales to the benefit of the traders.

A contractor will maintain the parking lot and charge per –day parking fee from market people and hourly from visitors and customers, the RDA chairman said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2020.