ACE to recover rent from shops set up on state land

LAHORE: Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has decided to recover rent from shops set up on state land under a revenue recovery system in which an identity number will be issued to more than 40,000 shops across the province, The News has learnt.

According to sources, the revenue recovery system was initiated to curb corruption and increase state revenue after appointment of Gohar Nafees as director general ACE Punjab. The ACE has planned to increase the revenue of the province by Rs 10 billion annually, by issuing ID to every shop on state land.

Sources claimed that only two billion rupees from shops on state land were being received every year by the government of Punjab and added that ACE believes in elimination of corruption.

ACE has made a data summary of shops in which previous status, current status and deposit status have been mentioned. The ACE will send the data summary to the Punjab government, which will write a letter to Lahore Development Authority (LDA), Board of Revenue (BoR), Auqaf Department and Local government to recover revenue from shops under revenue recovery system. After the registration of the shops on state land, a shop identity will be issued to every shop tenant. Through this ID, the renter/allottee will deposit the rent and arrears in the banks concerned. If the renter had not paid rent and arrears, he would pay fine which is mentioned in current status, according to sources in ACE. Rent will be increased ten per cent annually as per rules. It was mentioned in the data summary. Date of agreement and period of agreement have also been mentioned in the data summary. ACE has devised the system to control corruption in department concerned. If a tenant does not pay rent on due date, he will be fined. His status will be marked as red and ACE would take action against him as per law.