RAWALPINDI: The private housing schemes that collected billions from the public in the name of registration fees and transfer of property in their schemes are defaulters of the Punjab government to the tune of Rs1.191 billion in Rawalpindi division.

A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that the Board of Revenue (BOR) Punjab had conducted the audit of government dues from transactions of files by private housing schemes as per the amended Stamp Act and found that the housing schemes in Rawalpindi Division had failed to submit Rs1.509 billion in the current fiscal year.

He said the stamp duty recovered from private housing schemes was to the tune of Rs318 million, while Rs1.191 billion were still pending.

The official said private housing schemes charged new rates of stamp duty on the registration of land and houses from the buyers but did not submit their duty to the government.

He said the housing schemes in Attock district had to pay Rs4.367 million and no recovery had been made by the district administration, while in Rawalpindi, private housing schemes were defaulters of Rs1.509 billion out of which Rs318 million had been recovered so far and while Rs1.191 billion was still pending.

In Murree, private schemes were defaulters of Rs13.431 million out of which the local administration recovered Rs0.613 million while and Rs12.817 million were still pending.

However, no housing scheme in Chakwal, Jhelum or Talagang was a defaulter on stamp duty.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2024