Property tax recovery: ‘Don’t seal five-marla houses’

FAISALABAD: Excise and Taxation Departments (ETD) has been stopped from sealing five-marla houses in its drive against property tax defaulters in the city. This was stated by an ETD spokesperson on Sunday. He said the directive was issued by the Excise and Taxation Secretary after a number of requests in this regard were received from the defaulters who owned five-marla houses. He said complainants had alleged that some ETD staffers were harassing their families and locking them inside their houses. He said billions of rupees are outstanding in property tax from 2004. He said more than 4,000 defaulters had so far been made to pay Rs35 million in the recovery drive.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2012.