There’s no escaping the tax hounds!

Punjab Excise and Taxation Department ‘went as far as they could to perform their duties’ and were able to locate and tax an international dance party organised in district Kasur.
After a delay of about two hours, the party which was organised by Full Circle Corporate Marketing (FCCM) continued with breaks but was let loose after Rs 500,000 were paid as security, sources told Pakistan Today. “We have taken security from them for now, but the real calculation of the party would be done after the party ends,” said the source present at the venue. While talking to Pakistan Today Regional Entertainment Taxation Officer Muhammad Asif said he had no personal grudges against the FCCM but the least the party organisers could do was pay the tax.
“Had the FCCM fulfilled their legal obligations and had paid all the dues of the entertainment tax they would have not been made to go through such an embarrassment,” said Asif.
According to sources in the PETD the organisers, FCCM, had turned up at the PETD Model Town office on early Saturday morning as the PETD had found their hideout in Kasur. The members of FCCM started quarrelling with the PETD officers. The source said Lahore Excise and Taxation Department, with the coordination of Kasur Excise Department, had located the party farmhouse near Head Balloki. “We had dispatched our men in the morning for kasur, at that time only the guards were present at the party venue,” said the source. The source further said it was not as big as they thought and that there were only about 250-300 people present at the party place as the venue was in the suburban area of Kasur.
FCCM in collaboration with an international band Ministry of Sound was conducting a rave-cum-dance party by the name of ‘This is Lahore’. This mega event included an international DJ Sander Kleinenberg who had been invited in a 12-hour-marathon dance procession in the suburbs of Kasur at a farmhouse told sources. Other than main performance local DJs were performing in this event too. All the advertising of this event has been mostly done over the internet, mainly Facebook. Sources in the PETD earlier told Pakistan Today that the organisers were having the event in the district of Kasur instead of Lahore to somehow avoid Entertainment Tax which is set at 65 percent of the entry ticket which was being sold at Rs 6500–Rs 8000. The event was also attended by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s son, Haider Gillani.