Pindi excise dept records low tax recovery

Officers exchange harsh words over allegations of corruption

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department has seen record low recoveries of property tax in the current fiscal year.

Owing to low recoveries, the Excise, Taxation, and Narcotics Control Director General (DG) Saleha Saeed replaced three excise inspectors.

The DG issued the orders during a meeting held at Rawalpindi Excise Office. The meeting observed that there has been very low recovery during the first two quarters of the financial year 2020-21.

While some officers attributed the fall in collection to the lockdown imposed by the government earlier this year to control the spread of novel coronavirus, others blamed ‘touts’ who were running ‘bribery’ rings in collusion with officers to cause loss to the national exchequer.

Rawalpindi Audit Director Mushtaq Faridi and Rawalpindi Excise Director Chaudhry Sohail Ahmed exchanged heated words over the presence of touts outside the excise offices as well. However, DG intervened and settled the matter.

But, DG Saeed and Audit Director Faridi also strongly reacted to low recoveries by the inspectors. As a result, Inspector Rashid Dogar, Inspector Aqeel Ahmed, and Inspector Riaz Virk were removed and transferred to another circle.

This year, the excise department has seen a record decline in the collection of motor and property taxes. It has also launched a crackdown on the tax defaulters and red notices have been issued to them too.

Shortage of stamp paper

Punjab Revenue Department has failed to issue smart cards for stamp paper vendors against which they were to get stamp papers issued.

According to new rules devised by the incumbent provincial government, every stamp vendor is allotted a unique code to get stamp papers from the National Bank of Pakistan and Bank of Punjab (BoP).

However, the August deadline has passed and the stamp vendors are still waiting for their licences. Without licences, they cannot get the stamp papers, creating a crisis in Rawalpindi.

As a result, citizens are facing extreme difficulties as they are not getting stamp papers for affidavits.

Besides this, the filing of lawsuits in the courts has also been affected due to the shortage of stamp papers in the district. Punjab Revenue Department had charged some Rs1,500 from each stamp paper vendors against issuing unique smart cards. It had announced to issue the cards until August 30.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2020.