Charging tax on CAA land: Court stays Pindi’s development body move

Court seeks reply from Punjab housing and urban development, RDA.


Mudassir Raja March 30, 2012

RAWALPINDI:


A court has stayed the move of a Punjab government department to charge commercialisation fee on a land owned by the federal government and raze the structure built on it. 


Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Younus of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench issued the direction on Thursday on a petition filed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) challenging the Rawalpindi Development Authority’s move to charge commercialisation fee on a land owned by the aviation body and demolish a school building constructed on the land.

The court sought reply from Punjab housing and urban development secretary and Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) director general on the petition and restrained RDA from collecting tax till the final decision of the petition.

The aviation authority’s counsel, Haseeb Shakoor Paracha, maintained that the land was leased out to Tahir Mehmood, the owner of Spring Field Montessori and High School, by the CAA for construction of a school building and some shops. As the land was acquired by the defence ministry for the airport and is controlled by CAA, no provincial or local authority can collect any taxes from it.

He added that the CAA has the authority to use the land for commercial purposes to generate revenue. He maintained that RDA could only collect commercial fee for the land if its status was changed from residential to commercial, adding that the land has been commercial in nature since it was originally allotted to the defence ministry.

Under these circumstances, the counsel said, RDA does not have the authority to issue orders for demolition of structures built on the land.

The CAA counsel asked the court to cancel the notices issued by the RDA to the school owner and to release the site plan for the area that incorporates relevant building by-laws.

Despite repeated attempts, RDA Director General Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed could not be contacted. However, a senior RDA official said the civic body will disclose details only to the court regarding the matter. He added that RDA needs to ensure whether the lease plan given by CAA to the school owner is commercial or residential in nature.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2012.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ