LAHORE:After getting a court order, the excise department has sealed as many as 16,000 commercial properties across the Punjab province on non-payment of taxes on Friday. The excise department also sealed 2,000 properties in Lahore city alone. According to excise department officials, the owners of sealed properties had to pay taxes amounting to Rs690 million, but the excise department could collect only Rs340 million in taxes from them.

The officials said that the owners of 2,000 properties in Lahore owed more than Rs190 million in taxes. But the department could collect only Rs70 million from them. The DG Excise ordered strict action against the defaulters. He said that the properties would remain sealed until their owners paid the taxes.