LAHORE: The Punjab Excise and Taxation department is considering training of its officials as professional property evaluators from Malaysia.

E&T Director General Akram Ashraf Gondal has recently returned after visiting the National Institute of Valuation Malaysia (NIVM) to have first-hand knowledge about training of evaluators and working of the academy.

Officials believe that Pakistan`s federal and provincial tax collection agencies lack institutionalised evaluation mechanism to determine fair market prices of properties.

They say contrary to countries like Malaysia and SriLanka (both are advancing in valuation in the entire region) where multiple courses and degrees are run in different universities and institutions, there is no such arrangement in Pakistan.

Officials say the evaluation of property rates under District Collector (DC) formula is usually revised upward by the officials who too do not have professional capacity to determine rates as per real market value and work out tax ratios.

They say usually the evaluation is done by using decadesold District Collector rates, certain guesses and cost methodology.

Gondal told Dawn on Tuesday that he explored possibilities of how to establish a training institute in Punjab to impart training to the depart-ment employees for determining fair market value of properties.

He said after the approval of the Punjab government a batch of around 10 to 15 department officials would be sent to Malaysia in future to get training of evaluation and process of establishing valuation academy.

Gondal said Malaysia was chosen for training of E&T ofhcials because of highest evaluation standards, adding NIVM officials had agreed to impart training to Excise and Taxation officials in Kuala Lumpur in near future.

The DG said the training academy would also cater to the needs of other public sector departments which require evaluation lil