RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) is set to launch action on Tuesday against the base transceiver station (BTS) towers after the cellular companies failed to deposit their annual fees worth Rs75 million for the fiscal year 2016-17.

“A total of 156 BTS towers have been installed in the limits of the RCB for which the companies have to pay Rs120 million annually to the civic body,” a senior official of the RCB told Dawn.

He said during the six months of the fiscal year, the RCB managed to collect Rs45 million from the mobile phone service providers but two prominent companies did not pay the fees.


RCB says two companies failed to pay the annual fee for their mobile phone towers installed in cantonment areas


“We will start action against the cellular companies and teams have been formed to check the towers in different areas.” He said batteries of the BTS would be confiscated as sealing of the towers would be against the terms of an agreement signed with the companies.

In reply to a question, he said the system might be switched off if the companies did not give an assurance of paying the dues within 15 days.

Apart from the BTS towers, the RCB has also sped up its campaign to recover property tax from commercial outlets.

“The target of property tax was set at Rs560 million and the RCB has so far collected Rs326 million. The drive has been launched to recover dues from the commercial plazas,” he said.

In a separate campaign, about Rs440 million have to be recovered from chronic commercial defaulters.

“The tax branch has been given a list of defaulters to recover the amount and seal the plazas if the owners refused to clear the dues.”

About the water fees, he said the RCB had set the target of Rs180 million in the current fiscal year and managed to recover Rs91 million so far. He said under the head of the professional tax, Rs2 million had been recovered against the target of Rs4 million.

When contacted, RCB spokesman Qaisar Mehmood said two cellular companies had failed to pay their dues so far and action was being initiated against them.

He said almost all domestic housing units had paid their outstanding amount but dues were to be collected from commercial units. “The recovery of tax on the transfer of immovable property improved with the increase in the sale and purchase of the property in the cantonment areas.”

He said the recovery of water tax also improved as the RCB started action against defaulters. He said 182 water supply connections were snapped on Monday. Earlier, almost 500 connections were disconnected and restored after the outstanding amount was paid by the consumers.

He said the RCB would soon start a survey of commercial buildings for a tax assessment as it was mandatory for the civic body to carry out the survey after every three years and impose tax as per the rental value of the property.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017

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