The unabated operation of commercial units in residential areas continues to cause millions of rupees loss to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in terms of revenue through tax evasions.
According to an audit report and documents available with Online, the CDA building directorate has identified as many as 2,191 houses in residential areas which are being used for commercial purpose.
According to the documents, these include 188 guest houses, 161 hostels, 45 show rooms, 102 clinics and hospitals, 404 schools, coaching academies and tuition centers, 824 offices, 106 fitness centers, beauty salons, 35 commercial centers and 322 shops and eateries.
The audit report says that the civic agency continues to face a loss of over Rs1 billion in revenues as these commercial units evade taxes.
According to the documents, most of the commercial units are operating ‘F’,’G’,’I’ sectors series.
The CDA building directorate has sent as many as 1,165 cases to CDA Deputy Commissioner for action and the commissions has so far disposed of only 344 cases by imposing minor penalties on commercial units. According to the documents 138 commercial units le have taken stay orders from different courts against eviction notices.
According to the audit report, the CDA officials have taken the stance that the Building Control Directorate of civic agency has no authority to take action against violators while it was the domain of the CDA Deputy Commissioner (revenue) to take action against them.
When contacted, CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said that the civic agency’s building directorate teams present their reports to the deputy commissioner (revenue) who take action against violators from time to time. He also said that penalties were imposed across the board. When asked, how these commercial units continue to function when the court has issued orders for their vacations, he claimed that action was under way to get commercial units vacated from residential areas.
