The Punjab Excise Department plans to collect property tax from vacant plots province-wide, including Lahore. Additional DG Rizwan Sherwani stated that they will use geo-tagging to identify those who haven’t paid taxes on such plots.
Geo-tagging will facilitate the identification of all vacant plots within the rating areas. Currently, there are over 115,000 vacant plots included in the tax net across Punjab, including Lahore. The majority, accounting for over 70%, are situated in large societies within Lahore. With the implementation of geo-tagging, an additional 0.3 million vacant plots will be brought into the tax net.
Empty plots are subject to annual taxes ranging from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 12,000, depending on the rating area’s value. The inclusion of new plots in the tax net is expected to increase annual revenue by one to one and a half billion rupees.
