LAHORE: Amid scarcity of funds, Punjab excise, taxation and narcotics control department has recently begun another phase of the survey for digitised scanning and photographing properties to introduce computerised property tax challans in 12 more districts of the province.

The department has been issuing PT-10 computerised challans in the districts of Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Sialkot for the last three years or so, claiming improvement in performance indicators during the current fiscal.

The provincial government had allocated an amount of Rs939 million in 2016-17 fiscal for the digitised survey of properties, but it released only Rs204 million till February 2017.

The survey is being jointly conducted by the teams of The Urban Unit Punjab and the department’s property tax field unit. The allocations will also include the expense to be incurred on third-party validation of the survey.

The teams are currently conducting survey in 12 newly-identified districts of Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sheikhupura, Rahim Yar Khan, Toba Tek Singh, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Okara, Kasur, Gujrat and Jhelum.

The department’s Director General, Akram Ashraf Gondal, says the re-assessment/evaluation of all types of properties has already been done on bi-annual basis. The latest survey, he says, is aimed at taking photographs to detect unrecorded and upgraded properties.

He says the department is likely to scan all residential, commercial and industrial properties in the 12 districts by June 2017 and will start issuing computerised challans in the next fiscal.

The DG says though the delay in funds release has affected the pace of the survey, the joint teams are making efforts to meet the deadline of June 2017. He hopes the government will release another tranche of funds soon for speeding up the survey.

Mr Gondal says the main objectives of the computerised property tax system are to plug in loopholes in the registration process, and a fair calculation and assessment of properties and the billing system.

He says after introduction of the new system, the number of complaints and appeals against property tax calculations in the six districts has shrunk considerably. He adds that most of the complaints initially received were because of technical hitches in the software and lack of staff capacity.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017