Daily Times

SUKKUR: Property survey for three segments of taxation has been initiated in Sukkur with the assistance of the World Bank’s (WB) Trust Fund for Accelerating Growth and Revenue (TAGR), a component of funds for the purpose, said Excise and Taxation Department Director General Shoaib Siddiqui on Tuesday. The WB has provided funds to the Sindh government for conducting the property survey of industrial, commercial and residential units of Sukkur in the first lag.

The bank has also assured the government of financial assistance for initiating the identical survey in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpur Khas, Larkana, Khairpur and Benazirabad.

Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah has also sanctioned the second phase of the survey to be initiated during the next fiscal year.

Survey in Sukkur would be completed within a year, and its data would be compiled in a software system, which would later help the taxation department in shaping the new tax collection system on property, he said.

In Sukkur city, there are around 34,000 property tax units. After compiling the findings of the fresh property survey results, a 200 percent increase in the number of property taxpayers is expected.

A Punjab government-run company, under an accord with the Sindh government, is conducting the property survey in Sukkur.

This practice will hopefully document all units in Sukkur, which will help the government ascertain the scale of new taxation rates. Due to the exercise, the provincial government will also be able to generate more revenue under the head of property tax, he maintained.

According to existing data, the number of property units in Karachi stands at 815,438, followed by 132,859 in Hyderabad 173,782 in Larkana and 81,767 in Sukkur.

The government will be able to increase its tax revenue up to 60 percent if the survey in these cities is completed, he added.

The Excise and Taxation Department, Sindh, is currently collecting excise duty, cotton cess, professional tax, hotel and restaurant tax, property tax and entertainment tax under Section 7 of the Tax Act, 1958.

Under this act, it is obligatory that property should be evaluated after every four years, but no survey has been conducted during the past 16 years.