KARACHI, July 30: Sindh Excise and Taxation Department has decided to widen the scope of property tax and bring all major organizations, including government corporations, major buildings, hotels, hospitals, schools and industrial concerns, into the net.

Addressing a press conference at his office here on Friday, the adviser to chief minister on excise and taxation, M.A. Jalil, said that notices would shortly be issued to the categories whose property tax had been assessed. In case, he added, they showed any reluctance to pay property tax, their properties would either be confiscated or sealed.

Besides, he said that tax of all such properties, which had not been assessed yet, would also be determined and recovered as per law. He further said that he had also ordered re-assessment of tax of all major properties whose tax had been assessed less for any reason and payable tax be recovered from them as per law.

He said that the preparations had been finalized and the notices would shortly be issued to complete the entire process by Sept 30. The adviser pointed out that his directives were in relation to only major properties and industrial concerns while the owners of houses or shops were not being included in this campaign.

He said that the government did not want to put the masses into any inconvenience. He said that public should bring their complaints to his notice directly so that not only the same were redressed but action could also be taken against the staff involved in corruption.

In order to achieve the targets in a better way, he claimed that he had asked the secretary excise and taxation to deploy surplus staff of excise and taxaiton department with the property tax wing so that the task taken in hand could be accomplished at the earliest.

He said that the provincial government had recovered one billion rupees on account of property tax during fiscal 2003-04 which was distributed among the local councils as per formula already devised.

As a result of the campaign being launched, he said that the excise and taxation department was expected to collect Rs250 to Rs350 million more than the previous year without imposing any additional tax. He said that the local councils with this amount would be able to spend funds higher by 25 to 35 per cent on their development schemes.

Mr Jalil said that some big corporations owed hundreds of millions of rupees to the government on account of property tax. The Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited, Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, Karachi Eelectric Supply Company, Sui Southern Gas Company, Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation and Pakistan Televsion were a few to mention who used to avoid paying property tax, he added.

He said that the PTCL owed Rs310 million to the government on account of property tax in Karachi alone. The adviser said that all the properties in Sindh were surveyed for collection of property tax in the year 2000.

However, he pointed out that there had been manifold increase in the number of buildings and factories throughout the province for which a new survey would be conducted to bring them in the net of property tax payers.

He said that despite repeated issuance of notices a large number of people, including the owners of new factories in Port Qasim area and SITE I and II, had not been paying property tax or they had not been assessed so far.

In Port Qasim area alone, he added, there were 163 industries that were faulting in property tax. Mr Jalil said that the excise staff had not focussed their attention on this aspect and as a result the government was not recovering the taxes which were due for recovery.

To a question, the adviser said that the government had fixed the property tax collection target at Rs1.18 billion during fiscal 2003-04 out of which Rs1.04 billion were recovered while exemptions amounting to Rs280 million were for various categories of people including widows and retired government employees besides houses upto 600sq-feet.

For the fiscal 2004-05, he said, the target on account of property tax collection had been set at Rs1.45 billion. He said the collection of additional property tax from non-paying categories had been anticipated at Rs250 to Rs350 million. -APP/PPI