Property tax collection to resume from July

Officials say issuance of over 0.65m vehicles smart cards is pending

RAWALPINDI: The provincial government has decided to resume property tax collection from next month.

The Punjab Excise, Taxation, and Narcotics Control department officials informed that Excise offices across the province had been closed on March 25 due to coronavirus lockdown.

The officials said that the offices for the collection of property tax would be reopened at the start of the new fiscal year in July. They informed that strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) are being developed under which the offices would resume work.

Subsequently, the vehicle registration process across the province has come to a halt due to the coronavirus lockdown too. Issuance of over 0.65 million vehicles smart cards to the road users is pending, officials said.

They added that the government has not generated any revenue for the past three months owing to the pandemic situation.

However, the excise officials said that they would resume the preparation of vehicle registration plates from next month, adding that, for this purpose, they have already acquired offers from the companies.

The online appointment system which the department had started amid the coronavirus situation badly failed with most of the drivers being non-tech-savvy.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2020.