Lahore city district administration has launched a crackdown on developers, builders, sponsors and managers of private real estate companies over illegal internal transfers, according to media reports of houses, land and other types of properties to buyers. The step was taken in the wake of the promulgation of the Finance Act 2018, which requires necessary payment of government taxes before any immovable property can be transferred. Before this change in law, developers themselves transferred property under the Stamp Act 1899. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Section 62 of the Stamp Act 1899 authorizes the city district administration, through its sub-registrars, to impose sanctions on such transfers of property. They have the power to seal such housing projects in case they fail to pay all government taxes while transferring real estate, including internal transfers. Accordingly, the city's district administration has directed its sub-registrars to issue notices to the affected parties stressing that all such private companies must pay the necessary taxes and stop the previous practice of internal property transfers on their own. While section 3 of the Stamp Act 1899 defines "taxable instruments", serial number 63A of Schedule I, which defines stamp duty on instruments, is entitled "transfer of rights or interests in immovable property ". “Refers to the transfer of rights or interests relating to an acknowledgment of such transfer, by a development authority, a housing authority, a statutory body, a co-operative housing society, a company or a developer and any instrument by which a right or interest in property is transferred, registered, registered or recognized by the authority, body, company, company or developer”. Managers of private real estate companies, therefore, claim that they are transferring properties with serial number 63A of Schedule I. Apparently, the matter is administrative in nature as the city district government is taking necessary steps to ensure payment of dues taxes from private real estate companies. especially in internal transfers. In the short term it is necessary to take such measures. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg as the issue is connected to the more complex phenomenon of widespread taxation in Pakistan. This is an indicator of how fiscal fragmentation is causing hardship for the public administration and taxpayers, resulting in revenue losses. It should be noted that “property registration” is one of eleven indicators contained in the World Bank's annual activity reports. As far as tax administration is concerned, there is a separate district tax administration, established under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1967, which appears anomalous. The Commissioners/Collectors, Additional Commissioners/Additional Collectors, Deputy Commissioner/Assistant Collectors and Tehsildars are appointed under Sections 8, 9, 10 and 11 of this Act. A similar hierarchy exists at the federal level in the Sales Tax Act, 1990 and the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. The Sales Tax and Income Tax Acts also provide for a similar hierarchy of authorities such as commissioners, additional commissioners , deputy commissioners and deputy commissioners. If you see the situation through the eyes of a novice investor, it is not difficult to understand why our ease of doing business is continuouslydecline, at least since 2006. There is one main reason and that is "widespread taxation". at multiple levels across multiple agencies. Why can't such anomalies be handled by a single tax department? It is indeed a gigantic administrative and legal anomaly that the federal, provincial and district governments separately spend their scarce resources to monitor the fiscal changes brought about by the Finance Act 2018. A similar practice can also be observed in the cantonment boards under the Ministry of Defence. They established their own tax authority under different laws. This legal trend suggests that since Pakistan's independence, our practical legal issues have not been highlighted and the research needed to handle them has not been carried out. Therefore, property registration and taxation are governed by different laws exercised by different departments. Unfortunately, our politicians avoid discussing and dealing with many legal issues simply on the premise that such laws were framed by the British, assuming that there is no room for improvement. This is the real neglected area that requires the exclusive attention of the PTI government. Instead of spending our precious resources and energy in a haphazard, dispersive and dilutive manner, for the same purpose as capital taxation, a targeted and concentrated legal approach is crucial to ensuring good fiscal governance. Efficient capital taxation in Pakistan is a great challenge because there are no multiple tax laws exercised by different authorities at different levels. Many countries around the world have undergone large-scale fiscal interventions to ensure efficient taxation of capital. For example, the Norwegian tax reforms of 1992 boldly introduced neutrality between different types of capital and their corresponding uses. Despite these reforms, real estate capital remained an exception. This shows that housing taxation requires specific, clear and dedicated laws, in order to control the low imputed value of taxation together with the corresponding imputed rate of return. Their cumulative effect has a direct impact on the marginal effective tax rate. It should be remembered that reforms are a continuous process requiring short- and long-term measures. Measures taken by the city's district government could improve tax collection as a short-term measure. However, research on the arduous task of harmonizing tax laws in Pakistan requires dedicated efforts. For example, the Ministry of Finance could consider inviting doctoral scholarships for predefined projects on tax harmonization and integration in Pakistan. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and provincial tax authorities can forward their particular tax anomalies to the Ministry of Finance. It can then turn those anomalies into formal research questions framed by a high-powered think tank and ask interested candidates to do their doctoral research on these very specific topics. One such project could be "merger of Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1967", Sales Tax Act, 1990, Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and other similar tax laws for which the Ministry of Finance may occasionally announce doctoral scholarships. We already have established institutions like Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) that can play an effective role in this regard. In addition to long-term measures, an ever-dynamic and active Council of Common Interests (CCI) can do an excellent job in defining our.