RTO detects massive real-estate fraud

[LahoreEstate]

By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana
Friday, 15 May, 2009 | 10:14 AM PST |



Karachi's streets have been choked by development, much of which remains completely outside the tax net - APP photo.

KARACHI: The Regional Tax Office, Karachi has detected properties worth millions of rupees being purchased and sold without paying a single penny towards tax and both the parties usually do not even have the National Tax Number (NTN).

The fact came to light after RTO installed computers at registrar offices to monitor purchase and sale of properties. The information collected so is fed into Master Index which discloses details about the buyer and seller and of the property, official sources told Dawn.

According to details given by tax sources, the RTO has installed their own computer software which could immediately transfer all details of buyer, seller and the property being transacted.

In total there are 24 registrars in the metropolis limits, but the RTO has initially installed its computers at six offices. Sources said that two registrars of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, two of Saddar Town one of Jamshed Town and one of Defence Housing Authority has been covered under the system by installing computer software to feed back all property transactions that take place.

The information received from these computers, sources said, is matched with Master Index to verify facts if the buyer and seller are taxpayers or not. Similarly, if the property being transacted is clear from taxes or not etc.

However, the RTO sources said that so far it had been detected that around 49 per cent of deals taking place in the six registrar offices were not in the tax net. The buyers and sellers mostly did not hold the NTN and no tax had been paid against properties being transacted (purchased and sold).

Sources said that so far data of around 4,000 properties transacted had been put under scrutiny, and the RTO plans to carry speedy proceedings of assessment of these cases.

A high official of the RTO said that a single property worth Rs300 million was sold but no tax was paid and the seller even did not have NTN. ‘Such are property cases which result in huge revenue losses.’

In another case, he said a property worth Rs180 million was sold but revenue payment was short by Rs9.4 million and this enabled the RTO to initiate a drive to monitor property transaction by installing computer software at registrar offices.

Responding to a question the official said that the assessment of the detected properties would be cleared within this month and the RTO was expecting to recover huge revenue towards the two per cent Capital Value Tax on properties.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...-fraud--11