Government to introduce new tenancy law for Islamabad: Hammad Azhar

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar has said that Islamabad needed a new tenancy law and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) would soon present it before the parliament for approval, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Azhar was addressing a convention of traders at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ICCI).

Representatives of local markets and a large number of traders attended the convention.

Speaking at this occasion, the minister said that the PTI wanted the legislation on new rent law to be passed but it couldn’t do so in last five years since it didn’t have a parliamentary majority.

But he vowed that the government was keen on introducing it in the parliament and expressed the hope that it would be passed soon.

The minister said that the government was also working on a simplified tax scheme for Islamabad which would be finalised and introduced in next two weeks after consulations with all stakeholders.

He said that only 2000 shops out of 12,000 in Islamabad were registered and work was being done to document all the shops.

The minister said that the tax base was very narrow and the past governments kept burdening the people already in the tax net with new and/or increased taxes to make up for the gap in the tax collection.

“The PTI government is working to narrow the budget deficit by widening the tax base and reducing imports”, he said.