The City District Government has started an exercise to assess houses and flats in Scheme No 33 of the city for levying property tax. To assess the houses Deputy District Officer (DDO) has issued notices to all the property holders to provide information about bungalows, including size of plot, number of bed rooms, number of drawing rooms, TV lounge, covered area, number of floors etc within next seven days.
The notices were issued under property tax U/s 9 of the Sindh Urban Immovable Property Tax Act, 1958. The notices also directed the owners to provide details of use of house including self occupied, on rent or a portion on rent, commercial use, shops constructed or used as godown etc. The city government recently included this area in its survey program for imposing tax on property of more than 120 sq yards
Residents of the area said that providing details with copies of documents in just 7 days is not possible due to frequent changing hands of property, some owners are out of city or country. They said that the language of notices is harsh and demanding details with documents in such a short time has no justification. The city government must give sufficient time to provide details, they added.