The corruption and irregularities in the Chaklala and Rawalpindi Cantonment Boards have been causing million rupees to the national exchequer, Daily Times has learnt.
According to credible sources, the officials of the both cantonment boards were approving illegal commercial and residential buildings due to which the boards suffered losses worth of millions.
More than 90 percent commercial and residential buildings either do not have approved building map or meet the required criteria, said sources adding when the seller and buyer of these buildings approach TIP Tax branch of the civic bodies, the officials raise allegation on their cases.
In some cases, the building that is to be sold is having single-story building in the documents but on the ground it is two or three stories building, the sources explained.
The residential and commercial areas of both cantonment boards have classified the land in three different categories and tax imposing rate of each category is different.
The officials, allegedly after getting the bribe money, calculate the TIP tax as per the documents without surveying the locations and imposed tax of lower category which causes loose to the cantonment board.
A citizen of Rawalpindi Ahmed Khan filed an information request under “The right of access to information act” to provide the information regarding the TIP-Tax collected by the Chaklala Cantonment board during last one year, but despite the passage of almost two months, the public body did not share the requested information.
During an interaction with Daily Times, Ahmed said that there are huge irregularities in the Tax branch of both cantonment boards but the officials do not give attention to this matter. Because of the intentionally incorrect tax calculation, the public body faces the loss of millions every year.
Despite repeated attempts, Fayyaz Khan and Saleem, in-charge of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment board respectively could not be reached to get their versions.
Published in Daily Times, February 4th 2019.
