LAHORE:The Lahore High Court on Friday restrained Gujranwala Cantonment Board from recovering the alleged exorbitant tax on urban immovable properties from over a dozen petitioners.
Besides issuing the stay order, Justice Shahid Karim also sought replies from the defence ministry, Punjab government and Gujranwala Cantonment Board to explain under what law the cantonment board was levying the tax on the urban immovable properties in a mechanical and arbitrary manner.
Representing the petitioners, Advocate Sheraz Zaka argued that after 18th Amendment the tax on immovable property fell within the domain of the province and it was Punjab Urban Immovable Property Act 1958 that could levy the tax on urban immovable property in cantonments.
He said the cantonment boards functioning under the armed forces and defence ministry had no jurisdiction to determine the annual value of the building on which tax was imposed in cantonments.
The counsel argued that under section 60 of Cantonment Act 1924, the tax levied in a cantonment would be equal to the value levied in any municipality situated in a province, whereas actually the cantonment board has increased the tax in the past three years by more than 20 times to what the petitioners were paying in year 2017. He argued that the petitioners running their businesses in cantonments had been placed in a disadvantage to their competitors whose businesses were located in municipalities outside the cantonments. The counsel asked the court to set aside the impugned tax recovery notices issued by the cantonment board to the petitioners for being unlawful.
Justice Karim stayed the recovery of the tax and directed the government law officer to seek instructions from the respondents on the questions raised in the petitions by 7 November.