RAWALPINDI, June 18: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has expressed its willingness to award the contract for property tax collection to its suspended members.
“If they can provide us a bank guarantee for Rs200 million, we are ready to hand over property tax collection to them,” station commander Brig Hamid Khalil told Dawn.
He refuted the allegations that the cantonment board officials were involved in corruption. He said that the property tax collection, which ranged from Rs40 to 50 million when these members were in office, had now been increased to Rs100 million.
The members have also expressed their readiness to take over property tax collection and quadruple the amount collected by RCB officials.
“We stand by our offer and are ready to enter into contract with the Cantonment management for three years of property tax collection on payment of Rs600 million,” said ex-member Haji Ijaz.
HE ADDED: “According to our estimates, the income from property tax is not less than Rs400 million per annum. The cantonment managers show it at Rs100 million to pocket the remaining amount.”
While cantonment officials say that the tenure of the suspended members has ended, the latter claim that according to the Cantonment Act, they still hold membership of the board and have a say in its affairs.
On the other hand, despite protests of the suspended members, the RCB has decided to go ahead with its new property tax formula. Notices are being sent to units in commercial and posh areas. The new formula will also be extended to other categories of property owners, said RCB chief executive officer Iftikhar Mir.
He claimed that genuine proposals of suspended members had been accommodated. As proposed by the members, the tax will be levied according to the width of streets and availability of civic amenities, he said.
The members however maintained that their suggestions had not even been considered. Reacting to the management’s move, the members said they would challenge the new tax formula in the court.
“They promised us at the meeting on June 5 that another meeting would be arranged to settle the issue through negotiations, but started issuing notices to residents without taking us into confidence. The move also violates the Cantonment Act which says that any increase in property tax has to be made public through a press notification,” said Mr Ijaz.