ISLAMABAD: The district administration registered 1,252 kanal prime land in the name of three persons without collection of over Rs360 million mandatory capital value tax (CVT), documents available with Dawn revealed.

According to the documents, officials of six revenue estates of Islamabad registered the land in the name of Raja Ali Akbar Tabassum, Chaudhry Abdul Rehman and Shujaatullah Qureshi.

Tabassum and Rehman are founders of Ghouri Town. They swapped 626 kanal with Qureshi who is the secretary of the management committee of Intelligence Bureau Employees Cooperative Housing Society (IBECHS).

The agreement for exchange of land between Ghouri Town and the society was signed on May 15, 2014. As per the agreement, Tabassum and Rehman provided 626 kanals to the society in return for the latter’s land of the same size. The agreement was executed in December last year.

The revenue office of the district administration then registered the entries of 1,252 kanals in the name of the above mentioned persons. However, none of them deposited the CVT despite the lapse of about a year.

CVT has been imposed through section 7 of the Finance Act 1989 which places the responsibility of collecting it on the registering or attesting authority at the time of registering or attesting the transfer. According to the Federal Board of Revenue rules, CVT is payable by individuals, firms and companies which acquire an asset by purchase or a right to use for more than 20 years.

The revenue officer, Tehsildar Awais Khan, could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat confirmed that the revenue officials had registered the land in the revenue record without collection of the CVT.

However, he said, the final approval for transfer of 1,252 kanals had not been accorded so far.

Interestingly, the revenue officials did not cancel the registration for non-deposit of the CVT.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has initiated an inquiry into the allegations of tax evasion, illegal extension and commercialisation by IBECHS. The society has filed a petition in the IHC against the inquiry initiated on the direction of the Supreme Court.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2021