The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board has issued notices to thousands of commercial properties, built illegally over the past thirty years, for the recovery of commercialisation fees and taxes.
These unauthorised structures, including plazas, markets, and shops, were constructed on 14 non-commercial roads within the cantonment area without paying the required commercialisation fees, building plan fees, or commercial property taxes.
The board has now designated these 14 roads as part of the commercial zone and has requested building plans from the owners of all illegal commercial buildings. Thousands of notices have been dispatched to recover the commercialisation fee and commercial property tax from these property owners. This regularisation process is expected to generate hundreds of millions of rupees in income for the cantonment board.
The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board, throught its Building Control Cell, permitted the construction of these illegal structures on roads such as Muhammadabad Road, Khalid Bin Waleed Road, British Homes, Main Street Qasimabad, Golra Road, Quba Market Road, Street 7_5 Chauhar Bazar, Saham Road, Qadria Colony, Haji Camp Road, Shimla Valley Road, Sajid Bukhari Road, Dhok Chaudharyan Road, and Mughalabad Road. Over the past three decades, these roads have been transformed into business centres without the necessary approvals, leading to issues with traffic, sanitation, environmental pollution, drinking water, sewage systems, and security.
The current administration of the cantonment board has decided to regularise all these illegal commercial buildings by officially declaring these fourteen roads as commercial zones. To date, thousands of notices have been sent to the building owners, instructing them to commercialise their properties and get the building plans approved to regularise their structures.
Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Spokesperosn Rashid Saqib stated that including these 14 roads in the commercial zone will bring significant revenue through commercialisation fees, building plan fees, and property taxes, thereby providing financial stability to the institution. “This income will enable the cantonment board to offer better facilities to the citizens, including improved drinking water, sewage systems, road paving, street lights, and sanitation services.”
Spokesperson Saqib Rashid also mentioned that Cantonment Executive Officer Syed Ali Irfan Rizvi has issued clear instructions to regularise all buildings in these newly designated commercial zones and enforce the building code strictly.
This step aims to ensure that the development within the cantonment area is orderly and that all commercial activities comply with the relevant regulations.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2024.
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