PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa excise and taxation department has served a notice to the Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium management to pay property tax liabilities of about Rs12 million within a week.

Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO)-II Peshawar Sufian Haqqani told Dawn that the cricket stadium was defaulter of property tax to the tune of Rs12 million. Mr Haqqani said the tax had not been paid since the stadium was opened. He said the department had given them a week’s time to pay the tax liabilities.

However, a stadium employee told Dawn that they received a tax notice on Friday, and on Saturday excise officials arrived at the stadium to seal it.

However, he said as a match was in progress in the stadium when the excise officials arrived, they gave a week’s time to the management to pay the liabilities.

The employee said Arbab Niaz stadium was given international stadium status in 1984, and since then property tax had not been paid. He said as the stadium was government property, they would talk to the concerned department about the issue.