LAHORE:
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.
COMMENTS (4)
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Dear Maria, Which Part of US Do you live where you are paying 1 % Tax of the market value? you got to be kidding. In New York Property Tax Is between 11.255% to 18.569% of the market value and gain tax is about 60% to 70% (Including State & City Tax).
if you want your goverment not to beg to the other country then start paying tax,big house pay more and small house pay less tax.you want good school good road and good metro system plz pay tax ,if goverment have money then they will spend money on you.
@Billoo Bhaya: Property taxes in the US are based on the property value - including both land and the size of the home. This even takes into account the neighborhood since property value refers to real estate market value. Commonly people here pay 1 % of the market value of the home yearly. If someone in the US has inherited the home or they are retired or elderly, it makes no difference. No one is exempt from the property tax. Those who can't afford it, move to more affordable housing commensurate with their income. For far too long, Pakistanis have not paid fair property values like they do in other countries. And no, property tax does not hinder the real estate market.
This is a bizarre exercise. Single family occupied homes of retired or old age people, who inherited a property should not fall into speculative tables for property tax and be exempt. Don't tax people for building homes, otherwise few will invest in property. See how Cantonment Board and Defence Societies tax, e.g., there is no tax collected from an armed forces occupant but only from private owners. Also the age and accommodation, i.e., constructed square foot area should account for tax not the area of land. If 10 Kanals has a new house with 10,000 sq foot area then the tax should be levied on livable useable area. Another house with 2500 sq foot area should pay a lesser tax regardless of 10 Kanals. This is how properties are taxed in the US and in Europe. On square foot area Not on land basis.