Picture this. You've found a buyer for your 10 marla house in Lahore, agreed on a price, and booked a date for the transfer. Then the excise office tells you the NOC can't be issued. Your property tax is paid, so what's the problem? Since October 2026 there's a new box to tick. The Punjab government has made clearing the new sanitation fee, the one people are already calling the garbage tax, a condition for getting an NOC to buy or sell property. If you're selling, buying, or just holding property in a Punjab city, this affects you.
What changed
Until now, the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department mainly checked one thing before issuing an NOC for a property sale: whether the property tax was clear. As reported by The Express Tribune and ProPakistani in October 2026, the department now also requires the sanitation fee to be paid. The department was given the job of collecting this fee under the Suthra Punjab programme, and its records have been linked with Suthra Punjab's data, so unpaid dues will show up when you apply.
The scale is large. Reports put the number of urban residential and commercial properties covered at around five million across Punjab, and the government expects roughly PKR 40 billion a year from the sanitation fee alone, on top of more than PKR 42 billion it expects from property tax.
How much is the sanitation fee?
The fee is charged monthly and depends on the size of your property. These are the rates as reported in October 2026. Please confirm the amount on your own bill, because rates and categories can be revised.
Informal settlements and slum areas are generally reported as exempt. For a typical 5 marla house, the yearly cost works out to PKR 3,600, and for a 1 kanal house in the 20 marla bracket, PKR 12,000. Not huge on its own, but enough to hold up a deal worth millions if it's unpaid.
The deadlines
The excise department started billing urban owners at the start of October 2026, with bills for July, August and September being delivered by excise inspectors during the month. ProPakistani reported that these dues should be cleared by 31 October, while The Express Tribune reported that owners get 60 days from receiving a bill, with a penalty for late payment. Go by the date printed on your own bill, and if you're unsure, check with your local excise office.
Why some deals are stuck right now
Here's the problem a lot of sellers are running into. TechJuice reported that property sales across Punjab slowed because NOCs were being held back while the sanitation and excise data was being linked, in some cases before owners had even received their bills. In other words, you might be ready to sell, the buyer might be ready to pay, and the deal still waits on a bill that hasn't arrived yet.
If you're in this situation, don't wait passively. Contact your local excise office, ask for your sanitation fee assessment, and pay as soon as you can. Keep the paid receipt with your property file. It's now as important as your property tax receipt.
What sellers should do
- Check whether your sanitation fee bill has arrived, and pay it promptly.
- Keep paid receipts for both property tax and the sanitation fee in one place.
- Build the NOC timeline into your deal. Don't promise the buyer a transfer date until the clearance is in hand.
- If you live abroad, make sure whoever holds your power of attorney knows about this new requirement.
What buyers should do
- Ask the seller to show clearance of both property tax and the sanitation fee before you pay a large token or advance.
- Write it into your agreement that all government dues up to the transfer date are the seller's responsibility.
- Don't release the final payment until the NOC is actually issued.
Buying in a society? The basics still matter more than any fee. Check approval first using our guide on how to check if a society is LDA approved, and if you're buying from abroad, our step by step guide for overseas Pakistanis covers the paperwork.
The bottom line
The sanitation fee itself is small. The risk is a stuck deal. From now on, treat the sanitation fee receipt like your property tax receipt: pay it on time, keep it safe, and ask for it whenever you buy. If you have a sale or purchase lined up in Lahore and want help making sure the paperwork is clean before the transfer date, our team can walk you through it.
