RAWALPINDI: The residents of Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) are shuttling between the CCB offices and the elected members due to a ban on the transfer of property in the cantonment area.

The CCB collected three per cent tax on the transfer of immovable property.

The property rates are revised at the end of every fiscal year by the district collector (DC). But the CCB imposed a ban on the transfer of property at the start of the current fiscal year and still says that it has not received the revised rates from the district collector.

It may be noted that there is no such ban in the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) where a property can be transferred from the buyer to the seller after the payment of the transfer of immovable property (TIP) tax.

More than 50 people, who purchased new houses, are daily visiting the offices of the CCB for the transfer of the property in their name. However, the CCB officials collect their applications but do not carry out any further procedure.

Malik Sajid, the owner of a house in Chaklala Scheme-III, said he had been visiting the CCB offices daily to get his new house registered in his name but the officials told him they still did not have the revised list of rates issued by the district controller.

He said it was mandatory for the owner of the house to get the property transferred in his name.

Mohammad Irfan, a resident of Lalazar, said he purchased a house in July but still could not get it transferred in his name due to the indifferent attitude of the CCB officials.

He said people were ready to pay the fee but the civic body was not ready to entertain them.

He said the government should take notice of the issue. He said the civic body had failed to simplify the procedures, creating hurdles for the residents.

Suleman Khan, a resident of Sarwar Road, said the elected members and local lawmakers also failed to resolve the issue as the bureaucracy was still running the affairs of the civic bodies.

He said after the local government elections 2015, the residents were hopeful that their problems would be solved but the elected members remained powerless.

When contacted, CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz admitted that the CCB had stopped the transfer of property for the last many months, creating problems for the residents.

“According to the officials, without the new list of the revised DC rates it will be difficult for the CCB to fix the transfer fee,” he said.

“The elected members took up the issue in the last board meeting and the CCB officials promised to start the collection of the tax and clear all the pending cases as soon as possible,” he said.

He said daily 40 to 50 people also visited the offices of elected members of the CCB with the complaints regarding the transfer of property.

“We informed the CCB officials to start the process under the new DC rates issued by the district coordination officer after July otherwise the issue will be taken up with the federal government,” he said.

Published in Dawn October 8th, 2016