FAISALABADI: Caretaker Excise and Communications Minister Bilal Afzal has said that although the property tax rate was lowest in Pakistan as compared to other countries of the South Asia, yet the people still avoided from paying taxes.
He was addressing a briefing arranged to review performance of Excise & Taxation Department (ETD) Faisalabad here on Thursday.
He expressed concern over the collection of tax less than its target and said that ETD Faisalabad would have to work hard to meet tax collection targets. He added that only those inspectors who had excellent performance should be appointed in the areas to overcome the issue of low tax recovery rate. In this connection, a special media awareness campaign should also be launched to motivate the people for paying taxes, he suggested.
The minister assured that he would extend all possible support to resolve the shortage of staff and other problems in ETD Faisalabad.
Director Excise Noman Shaikh while giving a briefing said that the target of Rs.4.93 billion was fixed this year and out of it, 70 percent tax had been collected so far. However, efforts were accelerated to achieve the target during remaining days of the year.
Secretary Excise, Taxation & Narcotics control Masood Mukhtar said that for rest of the recovery, the target should be met on a daily basis and no political pressure should be taken into consideration in this regard. Only concrete steps should be taken to dispose of the pending cases at the earliest, he added.
Director General (DG) Excise Muhammad Ali said that defaulting properties should be sealed and the violators should be arrested. He said that remaining number plates and smart cards should be delivered immediately.
Earlier, in the briefing, it was informed that notices were issued to more than 162,000 defaulters in Faisalabad division.
The minister was apprised that more than Rs.122 million was recovered by sealing 8,551 properties of the defaulters. Due to 32 cases, recovery of Rs.510 million was pending still.
On this occasion, Head of Special Audit Team Adeel Amjad said that due amount of Rs.400 million could not be recovered due to poor performance and negligence of the inspectors concerned, but now recovery of Rs.50 million was necessary to meet the remaining target of tax collection in the division on daily basis.
On the recommendation of Audit Team, the inspector Salim Alvi was suspended while action was also ordered against Inspector Mian Irshad and Muhammad Idrees on charge of their poor performance.
The minister also awarded cash prize to Excise Inspector Amara and Khurram in recognition of their excellent performance.
DG Excise Muhammad Ali also directed Excise Officer to give effective recovery plan for remaining 22 days.
Later, the minister also inspected construction work of Faisalabad Jhang Road and Circular Road along with Deputy Commissioner Ali Anan Qamar and High Ways officers.
He told that the caretaker government had selected 137 most important roads in Punjab. Therefore, special focus was being paid for early completion of these roads.