THIS refers to the letter ‘Taxing poor’ (Sept 7). The writer claims that the FBR has increased taxes on property sale and purchase by 2,000pc. If this were true, it would mean that property valuation has been increased by a factor of 20.

A house previously being assessed at Rs10 million, for instance, would now be assessed at Rs200 million. As far as I know, this has not happened, except in some isolated cases where the declared value was ridiculously low and investors/speculators were indulging in massive tax evasion.

As for the writer’s assertion that property transactions have been at a standstill since July 1, this only proves that there are few genuine buyers and property prices have gone through the roof owing to manipulation by investors and speculators, similar to what happens with share prices.

Shakir Lakhani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2016