KARACHI, Jan 13: The Sindh Excise Department has refused to exempt the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry building from payment of property tax saying under the law it has no powers to do so.

The KCCI owes over Rs1.25 million to the department in property tax on its building, which has been declared a national heritage by the Sindh government.

A KCCI delegation led by Senior Vice-President Jawed Bilwani had recently held a meeting with Director General of Excise and Taxation Asif Marghoub Siddiqui to seek the property tax waiver.

The DG appreciated the services rendered by the chamber for promotion of trade and development of the city, but informed the delegation that under clause 4 of the Sindh Immovable Properties Act such buildings should not be used for commercial purposes.

He said that some portions of the building had been rented for commercial purposes and the chamber had been paying property tax in the past. He advised the delegation to approach the chief minister/governor in this regard.

Mr Marghoub told Dawn that there were many government and private institutions including big hospitals which were not paying property tax on the pretext that they were engaged in community service.

However, many of such institutions were being run on commercial basis, but owners of these buildings were not paying property tax, which runs in billions.

Meanwhile, Jawed Bilawani told Dawn that the chamber was working on no-loss-no-profit basis and had requested the excise department to exempt it from payment of property tax.

Responding to the commercial role of the KCCI building, he said that the present management did not rent out the portion but the tenants existed when the building was handed over to the chamber after the partition.

He further said that the chamber was not getting any rent income as the tenants were in litigation with the chamber and were depositing the same in the court.

Mr Bilwani pointed out that the chamber management wanted to get the rented portions vacated from the tenants to have more halls for business activities.