Property buyers and sellers across Punjab now have an extra box to tick before a deal can be completed. The provincial Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department has made clearance of the new sanitation fee — introduced under the Suthra Punjab programme — a condition for issuing the no-objection certificate (NOC) required for property transactions. Until now, the department’s main check before issuing an NOC was whether the property tax was paid up.
The change, reported by The Express Tribune and ProPakistani in October 2026, folds the sanitation fee into the transaction-clearance process. The department has linked its records with Suthra Punjab’s data, so unpaid sanitation dues will surface when a buyer or seller applies for an NOC. Excise sources say around five million urban residential and commercial properties across Punjab, including Lahore, are covered by the new bills, and the government expects the fee to raise roughly PKR 40 billion a year — on top of more than PKR 42 billion expected from property tax.
Billing for the fee began on October 2, 2026. The annual charge is collected in two six-month instalments, and taxpayers have been given until October 31 to pay the outstanding amount covering July to September. The monthly rates, as reported, are: up to 5 marla (residential) PKR 300; 5 to 10 marla PKR 500; 10 to 20 marla PKR 1,000; 20 to 40 marla PKR 2,000; above 40 marla PKR 5,000; and commercial properties PKR 500 to PKR 3,000 a month depending on size. Rates and categories may be revised, so the amount on your own bill is what counts.
Reports also note disruption: in some cases NOC issuance has been suspended before the bills have even reached property owners, because of the data-integration work between the excise department and Suthra Punjab — effectively bringing property transactions to a standstill until the backlog clears.
What this means for CBD Punjab
Anyone buying or selling property in or around CBD Punjab should now make sure both the property tax and the sanitation fee are cleared well before scheduling a transfer, to avoid a last-minute refusal at the excise office. The fee itself is modest for most residential holdings, but the new paperwork step — and the current disruption to NOC issuance — could slow transaction volumes across Lahore’s market in the near term. Once collection settles, the fee also adds a sizeable revenue stream to Punjab’s urban-service funding.
Source: Saiban Associates (saiban.pk), reporting on The Express Tribune and ProPakistani coverage, October 2026 — https://www.saiban.pk/blog/punjab-sanitation-fee-property-noc
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