THIS is apropos the editorial ‘Property rates’ (July 26) and the letter on the same subject (July 29). The claim of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that the new valuations correspond to 85 per cent of the market value is not correct. In my opinion, the market values claimed by the writer of the letter are also not realistic. There are different FBR rates for residential and commercial open plots of land. The FBR rate for residential plots is Rs65,000 per square yard and for commercial plots it is Rs150,000 per square yard.

The market value of the plots of land depends on the location and size of the plot. So, it would prudent to take the average rates for comparison purpose.

In DHA Phase VIII, the average conservative market value of a 100 square yards residential plot is about Rs26 million; for a 500 square yards plot Rs70 million; for 1,000 square yards plot Rs130 million. Thus the FBR value for residential plots comes to 25pc, 46pc, and 50pc of the market value respectively. Similarly, the average market value of a 200 yards commercial plot in Phase VIII is Rs100 million and the FBR value is Rs30 million, which comes to 30pc of the market value.

From this it is evident that the FBR value is nowhere near the 85pc of the market value as claimed by the FBR. The values need to be revised upwards if the FBR is sincere in curbing the black economy.

Mumtaz Ali Abbasi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2019