1.5b rupees is how much the department aims to raise through a new levy on large residential properties. PHOTO: FILE
The Excise and Taxation Department plans on starting a province-wide general survey of properties from July 1, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The survey, Re-assessment Operation 2013-2014, will be used to assess property values and revise property tax demands. The assessment should be undertaken every five years but was last carried out in 2002.
Approval for the three-month survey was granted by caretaker chief minster Najam Sethi on April 23. It will be completed on September 30. The department will then finalise the new tax demands by December 25. The revised valuation [after the reassessment] will be applicable from January 1, 2014.
The Excise and Taxation Department expects to increase its tax collection from around Rs4.75 billion (in 2012-2013) to around Rs8 billion (in 2013-2014).
Along with the reassessment, the department will computerise the property tax record in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala divisions. The records in Sialkot district have already been computerised. Together, these five divisions and a district generate around 70 per cent of the total property tax revenue, Excise and Taxation Director General Humayun Mazhar Sheikh says.
Officials of the department expect significant changes during the survey, including re-categorisation of many house colonies.
Tax on luxury houses
The department expects to add Rs1.5 billion to its revenue through tax on ‘luxury houses’. The Punjab government has proposed, in the budget currently being debated, that houses with an area between two and four kanals pay Rs500,000, the ones with area between four and six kanals pay Rs1 million while houses spread on six kanals or more pay Rs1.5 million in one time tax.
The tax, said Sheikh, will be applicable only to houses in Category A areas (those paying the highest rates.)
According to the current record, there are around 4,000 such houses in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad. The owners will have to pay the tax in July 2014.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2013.
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