ISLAMABAD: The business community in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called upon the Municipal Corporations Islamabad (MCI) to urgently withdraw the 300 per cent hike in the property tax in Islamabad.
Chairing the meeting, ICCI’s Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that there was no example of making such unprecedented increase in any tax in one go and urged the relevant authorities to reverse this unjustified decision to save the business community from unnecessary financial burden.
He said that businessmen were not against the payment of taxes, however, any tax rationalisation should be done in a gradual manner instead of putting an enormous burden on them, which was totally unjustified.
Sardar Khan said the ICCI had obtained a stay order from the Islamabad High Court against this measure and the court had directed the MCI to charge property tax on the basis of previous rates till the decision of the case.
However, it was unfortunate that instead of complying with the courts’ orders, the MCI has issued new bills of property tax on enhanced rates including interest of previous months. ICCI’s Fatma Azim and Abdul Rehman Khan said that many affairs of the MCI have been transferred back to the CDA and urged that CDA chairman take back unjustified decisions made by the MCI in order to provide relief to the business community and the citizens of Islamabad.
They urged the MCI to rationalise all taxes including property tax to make them affordable for taxpayers.
Former ICCI president Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi and others speaking at the occasion said that the MCI had also increased the trade license fee and signboard tax and urged that these taxes should also be revised.
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