Govt mulls carrot and stick policy

Top taxpayers to be awarded shields, while evaders’ photos to be put up on website

LAHORE:

Punjab Excise and Taxation Department has decided to award appreciation certificates and shields to highest property taxpayers and impose penalties on defaulters.

According to sources, a suggestion is also under consideration to publish the photographs of the tax defaulters along with their homes and details on the website of the department.

The department has reportedly decided to start implementation from July 1 of the decisions to recognise the top taxpayers during the coming financial year and publicly identify the major defaulters of property tax.

The sources in the department told The Express Tribune that some resourceful people big build houses, plazas and markets worth millions of rupees but do not pay the property tax on time, which makes it difficult for the excise and taxation authorities to meet the revenue target.

The department on average collects about Rs30 billion in property tax every year.

However, the targets were missed during the past two years as lockdown was enforced to curb coronavirus. The government also gave tax exemptions to give relief to people affected by the pandemic and the lockdown. However, action has been launched against property tax defaulters this year. The property of the defaulters is being sealed during the campaign but many people are still not pay the tax.

Therefore, the property tax defaulters face the uploading of their photographs online if they do not clear the dues immediately. The excise and taxation department has reportedly finalised a proposal to post on its website the photographs of major property taxpayers, including artistes and sportspersons. Certificates will also be issued to them.

Final notices have also been issued to the defaulters, including important personalities, across the city for collection of the tax. Pictures of non-payers by June 30 will be uploaded with the tax challan and photograph of the property in the defaulters' list.

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Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Hafiz Mumtaz Ahmed said in reply to a question that action would be pursued for recovery of dues from tax defaulters.

He said the excise and taxation department was also at the forefront in providing facilities to the citizens.

In addition to overcoming the problems left by the previous government, the ministry was also reforming the department, he claimed. He said the people would benefit from the reforms. "We are considering the legal aspects regarding the uploading the list of property tax defaulters with their pictures on the website. If there is a provision in the law for this, then there will be no objection in initiating it," the minister said.

He said a system of reward and punishment was working in the department.

Ahmed said there had been an improvement in revenue collection from online auction of attractive car and motorcycle registration numbers and the facility of token tax and other payments through mobile banking.

He said more facilities would be offered to the people through modern technology. Last year, the department, in collaboration with the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID), decided to take innovative measures under the Sub-national Governance programme (SNG2).

Under the ‘Track & Trace’ project of the provincial taxation department, satellite imagery will be utilised to trace hidden properties and vacant plots. The system would trace and stop vehicles with outstanding token taxes at the entrances and exits of Lahore with the help of modern scanning machines, which were introduced under the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

The provincial excise department has also drafted an agreement for data-sharing to be signed by the excise departments of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad, based on which tax payments for token taxes would be recognised and reported.

The excise authorities have decided to shift the mode of payment for new registration of vehicles and transfer of ownership to the ‘ePay’ application, as soon as the biometric system is launched.

With the help of the highly-sensitive satellites, high-resolution images of different areas will be obtained and linked to the MIS (Management Information System) data of the excise department, enabling it to know the number of properties and vacant plots included in the property tax net and those that are still hidden.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2021.