ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration has decided to bring changes to the property law to bring the rural areas of the federal capital under the tax net.

In the urban areas of the federal capital, there is a minimum value of land fixed by the FBR through the deputy commissioner (DC rate) on the basis of which the seller and purchaser of a plot pay a certain amount of tax.

But there is no such officially fixed rate of land in the rural areas.

As a result, the buyers and sellers in the rural areas mention a very low rate of the plot on the sale deed to avoid the tax.

ICT admin moves summary to the interior ministry to get approval to fix value of land

“We have moved a summary to the Ministry of Interior to get approval for the changes to the law and bring the rural areas of Islamabad under the tax net,” Tehsildar Awais Khan told Dawn.

He said in the absence of the fixed rate, the revenue officers had to rely on the property rates mentioned in the land deeds by the sellers and purchasers.

In August this year, the FBR issued a revised DC rate fixing new prices of the land in the capital city: Rs10 million for a 1,000 square yard plot in E-12 and Rs18 million for a similar plot in Sector F-6 and F-7.

The local administration wants to also fix the rates of land in the rural areas as a massive development activities are taking place there.

Meanwhile, the revenue office, which started the computerisation of land record in 2009, has failed to make any significant progress.

Though the ICT administration claims to have made progress, it would not make any difference until the entire process is completed and amendments are made to the existing property law.

In 2009, the ICT administration in collaboration with the Ministry of Information Technology launched the project to computerise all the land records in Islamabad’s 112 mauzas by June 2013.

But when work in only 33 mauzas had been completed in 2014, the ministry disassociated itself from the project and the federal government ordered the ICT administration to complete the rest of the work on its own. Sources said it seemed the ICT had lost interest in the project as the revised PC-1 was yet to be approved by the Planning Commission.

“Our revised PC-I is lying in the Planning Commission and without an amendment to the existing law we cannot issue computirsed fard (land document) even in the 33 villages where the project has been completed,” said an official of the revenue directorate.

On the other hand, the sources said patwaris were allegedly charging “illegal” fee from the citizens for getting copies of the fard and other land documents.

“If the land record is computerised, the door of corruption will be closed. This is the main reason the mafia does not want to see the completion of the project,” an official alleged.

When contacted, acting Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Abdul Sattar Esani said the project had been halted because of a shortage of funds. “We have moved a summary to get funds for restarting the project,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2016