MULTAN: Punjab Minister for Finance, Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shuja Ur Rahman has urged the elites to pay taxes to contribute their due share to strengthening the economy of the country.
Addressing at the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) late on Friday night, the minister recalled that an attempt to levy tax on luxury houses in three big cities was responded with filing of 800 petitions in the High Court.
He said that provincial government does not wish to burden the poor with taxes and all out efforts were being made to provide them relief, however, it was also a fact that 80 per cent of the provincial government's revenue come from the federal divisible pool and rest of the 20 per cent is generated by the province through taxation.
He said that the property tax which should have been the leading contributor in revenue generation stands second after motor vehicle taxes in Punjab. Property tax share today was 28 per cent while 54 per cent of the revenue come from motor vehicle taxes, he added.
Shuja said that property tax had not been raised since 2001 despite the fact that rental value of properties increased by 300 to 400 per cent during last thirteen years.
The situation has now come to a stage that makes it necessary to increase property tax, however, made it clear that every decision would be made after consulting stakeholders.
Explaining the importance of the property tax, he said that 25 per cent collection from this source go to development authorities, 25 per cent to Wasa and 50 per cent to TMAs for development and upgraded civic facilities in areas concerned.
He said that a fresh survey of property tax has been completed and an increase ranging from 60 per cent to 105 per cent has been proposed depending upon the cities and different categories of properties there.
He said that computerization of system and processes was a priority of the government to minimize chances of peoples' interaction with the officials to plug chances of coprruption.
He disclosed that GIS system has been launched in Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala that will enable the people assess the tax levied on them on their own through their computer.
He said that government wishes to facilitate tax payers by enabling them to pay taxes through branch-less system of banks like easy Paisa and things were moving forward to this direction.
He, however, added that it was mandatory for the government departments to maintain their accounts with NBP but the bank was a bit slower in adopting modern banking trends. The request has been made to the CM for opening of accounts with Bank of Punjab (BoP) and the matter has been taken up with the Governor State Bank of Pakistan.
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