Sindh to expand urban property tax base five-fold to 2.15mn properties

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government is set to expand the recorded urban property tax base more than five-fold—from around 397,375 to 2.15 million properties—in 20 local councils under a USD150 million World Bank-backed programme aimed at boosting Urban Immovable Property Tax (UIPT) collection and strengthening municipal financial management.

Official documents revealed that the proposed Sindh Property Revenues Enhancement Program (SPREP) envisages USD110 million through a Program-for-Results (PforR) component and USD40 million through Investment Project Financing (IPF), with the Local Government Department (LGD) as the implementing agency.

According to the Stakeholder Engagement Plan, only about one-fifth of properties in the five divisions covered by the IPF component are currently surveyed and registered in the UIPT cadastre, with approximately 397,375 records against an estimated 2.1 million properties.

READ MORE: World Bank team reviews property tax collection system in Sindh

The planned GIS-based, door-to-door survey is expected to increase the recorded property base in 20 participating local councils to approximately 2,149,080 properties—a more than five-fold expansion. Survey teams will visit residential and commercial premises, record property attributes and geo-tag properties for entry into a new UIPT Management Information System.

The programme will cover 20 local councils in five divisions outside Karachi—nine in Hyderabad, three in Sukkur, four in Larkana, two in Mirpurkhas and two in Shaheed Benazirabad. The broader institutional strengthening component, however, will extend to all 45 participating local councils, including 25 in Karachi.

The IPF component will also finance digitisation and updating of land records by the Board of Revenue, development of a digital master plan integrating land and tax systems, city surveys and rollout of an Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) covering budgeting, accounting, payroll and expenditure management.

The plan indicates that the programme will generate a major expansion in direct government contact with property owners, tenants and businesses. Survey teams will collect information on property use, ownership and physical attributes, raising concerns over accuracy, confidentiality, identification of enumerators and the procedure for correcting records.

The government has therefore proposed advance notification of survey visits, identification of field staff, disclosure of recorded particulars and accessible channels through which residents can inspect and correct property records. The plan specifically states that the survey is intended to establish a record rather than itself constitute a tax demand.

The World Bank document estimates that around 4.5 million people live within the jurisdictions of the 20 local councils outside Karachi covered by the IPF component, including approximately 2.16 million women.

The reform also seeks to address long-standing gaps in property and land administration. Under the programme, the Board of Revenue will digitise and update land records, while local councils will receive institutional and technical support to administer and collect UIPT.

A key feature will be the establishment of Town Citizen Committees in participating towns, comprising two male citizen members, two female citizen members and one local council member. These committees will meet monthly and serve as a routine channel between communities and the programme.

The plan also recognises that the expanded tax-record exercise could disproportionately affect or exclude vulnerable groups, including women, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, low-income households and residents of informal settlements.

To address these concerns, the programme envisages women-only consultation sessions, female facilitators and female enumerators wherever practicable, while retaining telephone, walk-in and written complaint channels alongside digital systems.

The programme draws heavily on the experience of the earlier CLICK project in Karachi, where the registered property base reportedly expanded from around 900,000 to approximately 4.2 million properties after the survey, following removal of duplicates, overlaps and properties outside the local councils’ mandate.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026