ISLAMABAD, July 7: The special senior magistrate of Capital Development Authority (CDA), Arshad Mehmood Chaudhry, said that he had recovered Rs40 million outstanding dues from 800 defaulters.

The CDA magistrate told Dawn on Sunday that a total of 1,200 cases were referred to his court by the authority’s revenue department during the fiscal year 2001-2002.

The cases referred to the court were related to commercial and residential property tax and water charges. “Of total cases sent to the court, some 800 have been disposed of,” the magistrate said.

To a query, he said last year the CDA had sent 1,200 pending cases to the court, the highest in many years. Some 1,000 cases were sent to the court in the three years from 1998-99 to 2000- 01.

He said the CDA’s revenue directorate sent those cases to the court in which it had failed to recover the amount from defaulters. “Complicated and challenging recovery cases were referred to the court.”

He said the court had to recover Rs52 million from the 1,200 cases.

The court had disposed of cases of recovery of property tax which could not be decided since 1991, the CDA magistrate maintained.

He stressed the need for streamlining the working of revenue directorate so that maximum revenue could be generated and mal practices eradicated.

He said property tax of commercial units was being collected under a survey conducted by the court staff. The survey was aimed at bringing those defaulters in the net of property tax who were being ignored by the recovery staff of the revenue directorate.

It is the first time in the CDA’s history that the record of traders and owners of commercial property is being maintained.

The source said most of the traders and owners were not paying property tax because the authority had no relevant record and it did not serve notices to the owners of these commercial unit in Islamabad.