LAHORE, March 22: “Incomplete” division of six towns of the city into nine is giving birth to several issues. One of them is a dispute over the collection of taxes from each other’s jurisdiction.
A recent evidence of this dispute surfaced when Ravi Town submitted a written complaint to the district coordination officer alleging that the Shalamar Town staff was collecting fee on the transfer of property from the former’s area.
The latter approached the executive district officer (revenue) to register its protest that Ravi Town’s contractor and revenue sub-registrar were depriving Shalamar of its finances by registering properties of the localities included in the newly-created town.
Shalamar Town Municipal Officer Chaudhry Shafiq, in a letter to the EDO(R) on Wednesday, said that due to the inclusion of union councils 15 to 25 in the said town, some of the mauzas have been divided between it and Ravi Town.
“The Ravi town contractor is manipulating to collect fee on the transfer of property from Shalamar,” it said, seeking clear demarcation of localities/mauzas in evaluation tables.
It said despite the appointment of a sub-registrar for the new town, sale deeds of properties falling in the area of Shalamar, particularly UC 15 to 25, were being registered by the Ravi Town sub-registrar.
Giving break-up for each month, the letter claims that on an average 250 deeds from Shalamar Town area are being registered by the Ravi Town sub-registrar every month.
As towns are allowed to charge one per cent of the total sale deed, the per month revenue loss being incurred by the Shalamar Town runs into millions of rupees.
Shalamar has also sought cooperation of Ravi Town administration in knowing the exact location of properties and addresses of the sellers and buyers for ascertaining the size of illegally-charged tax by the contractor.
Ravi Town TMO Agha Humayun says it is rather Shalamar staff which is collecting the fee from their area and he has twice written to the DCO on a complaint by the Ravi Town contractor.
According to him, he has already offered Chaudhry Shafiq to form a joint team for checking all the record and settling the dispute. “If our contractor owes any amount to the Shalamar Town, he will refund it and the vice versa.”
Revenue officials say EDO(R) Malik Muhammad Bakhsh has sought explanation from the Ravi Town sub-registrar and directed him to show, if needed, his record to the Shalamar staff for their satisfaction on the issue.