E&T department fails to achieve tax target

Rawalpindi : The Excise and Taxation (E&T) Rawalpindi has only collected Rs93 million property tax and failed to achieved the set target of Rs1.83 billion.

E&T, Rawalpindi has achieved only 52 per cent target of property tax collection till December 31, 2018.

Punjab government had set last date of depositing property taxes with 5 per cent ‘rebate’ till December 31, 2018.

The concerned authority said that if Punjab government extended date of depositing with 5 per cent ‘rebate’ till January 31, 2019, we would have achieved 100 per cent target of revenue collection.

Punjab government issued the notification of 5 per cent ‘rebate’ on November 25, instead of in the month of July. Public had short span of time to get benefit of 5 per cent ‘rebate’ with depositing property taxes. And secondly there was a technical fault in ‘online’ system running in between National Bank of Pakistan and E&T department.

ETO Rawalpindi Malik Noman Khalid has admitted that in routine, public had three months July, August and September to get benefit of 5 per cent ‘rebate’ for depositing property taxes. But, this time public had only a month to get benefit of this offer. If Punjab government extended date till January 31, 2019 we will achieve 100 per cent target, he hoped. He also admitted that there was a technical fault in ‘online’ system running in between National Bank and Excise Department.