Immovable property: FBR ups property valuation rates

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday jacked-up the valuation rates of FBR-notified rates of immovable property, including commercial, residential, apartments, flats and other areas of 40 selected major cities of the country.

The FBR used to fix immovable property rates of 20 selected cities but now this number has increased to 40 major cities while areas within the cities also increased. So the coverage of valuation tables increased.

The valuation tables have been revised upward with the aim to collect more taxes from the property sector. The FBR has increased the valuation rates of selected 40 cities manifold. The FBR has notified valuation tables for Abbottabad, Attock, Bahawalpur, Bhawalnagar, Chakwal, Dera Ismail Khan, DG Khan, Faisalabad, Ghotki, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Gwadar, Hafizabad, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Jhang, Jheleum, Karachi, Kasur, Khushab, Lahore, Larkana, Lasbella, Mandi Bhauddin, Manshera, Mardan, Mirpurkhas, Multan, Nankana, Narowal, Peshawar, Quetta, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Sukkur and Toba Tek Singh.

For Islamabad, any size of plot in square yards in E-7, the valuation rate will be Rs250,000 per square yard, F-6 Rs200,000 per square yard, F-7 Rs 350,000 per square yard, E-11 Rs110,000 per square yard, B-17 Rs55,000 per square yard, D-12 Rs100,000 per square yard, Faisal Town Rs55,000 per square yard, F-8 Rs200,000 per square yard, G-11 Rs150,000 per square yard, Mumtaz City Rs39,735 per square yard, Bahria Town Rs49,668 per square yard, and Bani Gala Rs36,363 per square yard.

The valuation rates of immovable property in the shape of flats and apartments is fixed in E-7 at Rs251,500 as value per square foot. For commercial property, the valuation of shop in Blue Area has been fixed at Rs680,420 per square foot, first floor in Blue Area Rs168,856 per square foot.

In Karachi, the value in respect of a residential building consisting of more than one storey shall be increased by 25pc for each additional storey i.e. value of each storey other than ground floor shall be calculated @ 25pc of the value of the ground floor; (vi) a property which does not appear to fall in any of the categories shown in the Appendix below shall be deemed to fall in the adjacent lowest category of the Appendix; (vii) whether the land has been granted for more than one purpose. viz residential, commercial and industrial, the valuation in such a case shall be the mean/average prescribed rate; (viii) a flat means the covered residential tenement having separate property unit number/subproperty unit number; (ix) in residential, multi storey building, additional storey shall be charged if it consists of bedroom and bathroom; (x) the rates for basements of built-in commercial property in categories I, II, III and IV shall be Rs13,500 per square yard.

In Rawalpindi, the FBR has fixed valuation rates of immovable property on the basis of off road and on road and increased valuation rates in some instances by 200 to 400 percent. In DHA phases, the valuation rates were increased manifold. The Real Estate Agents Association (RECA) leader, Ahsan Malik, while talking to this scribe said that the FBR had fixed valuation rates without taking the stakeholders into confidence. He said that the valuation tables had increased 200 to 400 percent. "We condemn it and will not accept it all," he added.