Beware Property Tax Defaulters, Your Accounts Are Going to Freeze

A few days back, at least 15 individuals were arrested over their non-payed property tax cases in Rawalpindi. Previously the department released a list of 300 nonpayers whose dues were exceeding PKR 100,000. It is worth mentioning that among the 300 defaulters, the department has already issued an arrest warrant against 80 of the nonpayers.

The Director-General of the E&T department says that to collect the taxes that worth billions of rupees every year, such a step is crucial for the economy of the country. It is though evident that tax collection has become a challenging task because of the number of increased individuals who avoid paying the taxes due to certain relaxations found in the rules.

The concerned officials are pleading amendments in these rules and regulations, therefore, for this purpose, a summary has been recently forwarded to the Secretary Excise and Taxation for the approval.

Recently, the E&T Department ordered the residents of 14 Union Councils (UC’s) in Rawalpindi city to clear their dues within 1 month’s timeframe, or else pay additional one percent as compensation amount. The UC’s include Morgah, Shakrial, Adiala Road, Dhamial, Gulraiz, Kuri Road, High Court Road, UC-74, UC-82, UC-84, UC-85, UC-87, UC-88 and UC-118. These 14 UC’s have five-year tax payment pending worth PKR 1 billion rupees.

The E&T department under this proposed policy will be easily empowered to freeze bank accounts of all the tax defaulters and can also arrest them in the same case.