Property owners to pay for budget deficit

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
By Tahir Hasan Khan

Karachi

The Sindh government is considering amending the system for evaluation of property value to generate income for the province in order to meet the budget deficit.

Disclosing this, sources told The News that changes in the procedure for evaluation of the property value will be included in the Finance Bill already tabled in the Sindh Assembly by the chief minister. The change will be made at the eleventh hour, they added.

The sources said that the new system was not included in the budget to create an impression that the budget was tax free. However, they claimed that the government was wiling to set up a system to evaluate the value of the property before its registration. Official sources pointed out that though the government had reduced the stamps duty but the new system will help generate more income for the province to meet the budget deficit. Sindh faces a Rs25 billion budget deficit.

Under the present system, it is on the owner to fix the value of his property and pay the fee for its registration accordingly. Under the new procedure, the sources added, the government will evaluate the value of the property before its registration.

The authorities concerned pointed out that after the implementation of the new system, property owners would pay more for the registration of their property. Besides, they will have to pay more tax on the basis of the government's evaluation.