Responsible citizens: In Pindi, around 700 private schools evading taxes

Taxmen accuse police of undermining their efforts.

RAWALPINDI:

Aside from a formal education, schools are where children are sent to instil good values in them, and if values are learnt from example, Rawalpindi has a new generation of tax evaders being trained.

According to officials in the Rawalpindi excise and taxation office, over 700 private schools across the district have not paid their taxes for the last 10 years despite receiving several notices from the authorities. A Land Revenue official requesting anonymity said that out of 1,000 private educational institutions in the district, only 300 schools pay their professional taxes.

Sources said that due to lack of resources and non-cooperation from the police, the owners of these schools simply ignore the notices repeatedly served on them by the local tax authorities.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Latif Ahmad said that a crackdown has been launched against the tax evaders. He said that the registration process of commercial and non-commercial properties was underway to improve revenue generation besides identifying tax evaders. He also confirmed that around 700 private educational institutions have not paid their professional tax for many years.

“Not only the private schools but also individuals and other businesses have not paid their tax for the last several years and the amount runs into millions,” he said.

As part of the crackdown, taxmen have tried to seal properties using authority given to them under the Land Revenue Act.

However, after Ahmad sealed a tax-evading private school in Rawalpindi, it was he who got booked.

The ETO said that after registration of the FIR against him and his team by the police, they were facing problems in collecting taxes and other outstanding pending dues from private educational institutions and other properties.

Another official of the department said that each private school is supposed to pay Rs300 per month as professional tax, adding that the total pending dues of these schools were in the millions. While talking about the school which was sealed by the tax authorities last week and resulted in an FIR against the ETO, he said that the owner of the school had not paid the tax since 2004.

When Banni Police Station Sub-inspector Farrukh Rasheed was asked about the FIR registered against the ETO and his team, he claimed the ETO had locked hundreds of children inside the school. “If the ETO thinks we have done it illegally, he should prove it in the court,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2014.