Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has registered a record increase of 42 percent revenue, said its chairman Lieutenant General Zulfiqar Ali Khan (Retd) on Thursday. In an exclusive interview with APP here, he said that since their open auction, all properties of the board in rural and urban areas, agricultural as well as non agricultural, had earned a revenue increase from Rs 488.95 million in 2003-04 to Rs 693.03 million in 2004-05.
He said that previously, only a nominal increase in rent of ETPB properties was made through 'ghost' auctions with the connivance of unscrupulous officials. This malpractice has been completely done away with, he asserted.
To ensure cent per cent transparency in the auction process, he said four-member auction committees comprising an Imam Masjid, a lumberdar a departmental representative and a nominee of the board have been constituted at the local level.
He said ETPB holdings include 15,839 property units and 46,189 sub-units in different provinces which generate annual rent of Rs 137.92 million. Efforts are being made, to increase the rents of these properties within the rules, he added.
About the lease of cultivated and non cultivated land he said ETPB maintains a total of 100,838 acres land in the Punjab, Sindh, NWPF and Balochistan, the annual lease of which adds up to Rs 58.676 million. The chairman disclosed that as many as 1900 cases were pending in different courts for litigation, which will now be pursued properly.
"The ETPB has completed three commercial complexes at Islamabad and Multan to generate more revenue, and rent amounting Rs 273.39 is expected from these complexes," he said.
"We have also earned Rs 56.024 million profit on investments made in government schemes like Defence Saving Certificates and term deposits." he added.
General Zulfiqar Khan said that of the total ETPB development allocation of Rs 70.24 million a sum of Rs 56 million has been spent on provision of better lodging facilities and repair/maintenance of the worship places of minorities.
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