RAWALPINDI: Giving in to the resentment from the traders to the increase, the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has stopped recovering property tax in Saddar area.

Besides, it has also stopped action against the commercial plazas who failed to allocate space for parking.

A senior official of RCB told Dawn that the civic body had increased the property tax by 30pc for commercial units in the cantonment areas, but the traders rejected the increase.

He said the traders took up the matter with the bazaar committee of the cantonment board which forced the civic body to stop the tax collection in the area until the determination of rental value of the commercial property.

He said that the traders also raised the issue with the elected representatives who would take up the issue in the board meeting expected to be held next month.

He said that traders also refused to pay tax imposed by the civic body on signboards. He said that the RCB had failed to collect money under this head.

The senior official of the RCB said that the property tax was the main source of revenue for the civic body and it had failed to achieve the targets in previous years. He said more than 20,000 commercial units were in the cantonment list of property tax payers for the last five years.

He said use of parking space for commercial activities by the high-rise commercial plazas in the Saddar area also came up for discussion.

He said that the RCB teams had started a survey in Saddar area to identify the buildings which had not allocated space for parking but stopped it a few months ago.

He said all the commercial plazas had turned their basements into shops which was against the law. Under the law owner could not convert the basement into shops and offices and he had to allocate 25pc of total space for parking.

He said the RCB had failed to take action even against the commercial plaza in front of its offices which had converted the basement into shops and offices.

He said that when the RCB tried to implement its law, the chemist shops’ owners resisted and it had to stop the operation.

When contacted, the RCB spokesman Qaisar Mehmood said the tax collection had not been stopped rather it had slowed down as it collected Rs34 million in last seven months and was confident to meet the target by June 31.

He said the action would soon be taken against the shopping plazas who violated the building by-laws.

When contacted, Cantonment Traders Association President Zafar Qadri said the traders had refused to pay the tax imposed on signboards of the shops as they had installed them on their property not on the RCB’s.

However, he said that provision of the parking space in the Saddar was the responsibility of the civic body and it should implement its laws if the commercial owners did not allocate space why they are not taking action.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018