‘GOVT USING DELAYING TACTICS IN TALKS ON PROPERTY TAX’

PROTEST TO BE HELD TODAY

THE government is using delaying tactics in talks with real estate consultants on property tax, and now it is announced that the shutdown strike and protest rally in Islamabad would be held today (Thursday) as per schedule.

In a press statement issued here on Wednesday, Real Estate Consultants Association (RECA), DHA Islamabad General Secretary Ahsan Malik said that Advisor of Prime Minister Haroon Akhter had invited the property dealers for a meeting, but he failed to give any commitment regarding revision or suspension of the existing unjustified, excessive and unilateral property tax imposed this year.

He said property dealers and real estate consultants from all over Pakistan had rejected the tax and would converge on Islamabad on October 27 to take part in grand protest rally.

He said they would take out a peaceful protest rally from T-Chowk Rawat to the National Press Club, where they would also hold a press conference and announce further plan of action.

Ahsan Malik said they wanted to pay the tax, but the property tax imposed from July 1 was highly unjustified, excessive and unilateral, and even the system itself was not transparent. He said there was no uniformity of taxation in the new system, leading to discrimination and discretionary powers in the hands of few individuals. “The property dealers fear that the measures adopted by the government would lead to corruption and nepotism, in addition to depriving the legitimate income to the thousands of dealers involved in the business,” he said

The association’s general secretary said that all investment in property business had been diminished considerably due this unjustified property tax, and now this investment was going to other countries, especially UAE. He said this would not only hurt the economic situation in Pakistan but thousands of people would also become jobless.