Punjab PA passes bills allowing govt to empower LGs to impose property tax

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed two bills allowing government to empower the local government to impose property taxes on suburban areas or those rural union council areas with urban characterstics or those which were declared 'urban' by the government for the purpose of collecting property tax.

The House chaired by Speaker Rana Iqbal Khan rejected all the amendments of the opposition members but the determined opposition members tested the patience of the treasury benches by pointing shortage of quorum five times. But this time, the treasury was fully prepared for the situation and managed to complete the quorum after ringing the bells for a few minutes during which the ministers succeeded in mustering the roaming MPAs from the lobbies and other rooms.

The two bills were titled The Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill (Bill No 47 and 48) 2016, that allowed the local governments to levy property tax on the properties and houses within the limits of metropolitan corporations, municipal corporations, municipal committees or a rural union council with urban characteristics.

The House was considering the passage of third bill titled The Punjab Civil Administration Bill 2017 that aimed to revive the system of civil management comprising commissioners, deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners and additional commissioners on the pre-pakistan pattern of the British rule, when the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for Thursday as the time of the day’s proceedings was over.

The amendments proposed by the opposition to the Punjab Urban Property Tax amendment bill were aimed at circulating the draft legislation for eliciting public and expert opinion, sending it to a select committee for review, levying the property tax not on annual value but on annual rental value of the properties, and restricting the local governments for increasing the tax only by two percent of the existing rate and that too be frozen for a period of five years. But all those were rejected by the sheer majority of the treasury members.

Besides, the opposition members, including Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Dr Waseem Akhtar, Arif Abbasi, Nabila Hakim Ali and Waqas hasan Mokal, criticied that the amendment would target the already suffering masses by allowing the local government to tax the poor on their whims.

They also lashed out at the government for reviving the colonial era cruel system of commissioners to subjugate the masses for carrying out the whims and wishes of 'the monarchial rulers who had been ruling the country in kings style.'

Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said the amendment would revert the country to the pre-Pakistan era, wasting all the efforts of the last 70 years to democratise the country and devolve the power to the democratically-elected representatives.

He said after this amendment, the rulers would perhaps move towards enacting the laws resembling the Mughal empire era. The opposition members warned that the revival of commissioner system would make the elected representatives clash with the civil administration over use or misuse of powers.