SWABI, Aug 18: The Revenue Department has been facing problems in the collection of agriculture/property tax with people refusing to pay it. The lower staff were directed to meet the collection target during the specified period.

Official sources told Dawn here on Wednesday that the government had given a task to the patwaris to collect the agriculture tax. The patwaris, the sources said, adopted a unique way of fulfilling their responsibilities. "In the transaction of land/property they charged the buyers for Ushr, local tax and agriculture tax," said the sources.

But those, the sources said, who were not involved in the land transaction or buying refused to pay a penny. The sources said the officials had given a tacit approval to the patwaris for the collecting taxes through their own devised method but officially they could not direct them.

Those who conduct the property business or are engaged in buying agriculture land had raised the issue on various occasions that the patwaris or other employees of the Revenue Department should visit the areas for the collection of property/agriculture tax and each citizen should pay it according to the prescribed rules but all in vein.

Those who resisted the move, the sources said, had faced a number of problems and even the transaction could not take place. A patwari said they could not deposit these taxes from their own pocket.

"We have no option but to collect the taxes through this method," he said. He recognized that through the prescribed rules no one was ready to pay the taxes and the illiterates did not even know about the imposition of these taxes.