Fact-check: False claim circulates about Punjab government imposing taxes on graves

Two government officials and budget documents confirm that no taxes have been imposed on graves in the province

Updated Tuesday Jul 23 2024

Online users are sharing a clip from a local news channel allegedly reporting that the Punjab government has imposed taxes on the graves of adults and children in its new budget.

This claim is false.

Claim

On July 4, a social media user shared a two-minute video on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: “Graves will also be taxed. For the graves of adults, you will have to pay Rs1,500 and for a child Rs1,000.”

The attached video shows a report by a local news channel that makes a similar claim. The clip has been viewed over 100 times at the time of writing.

Identical claims were also shared on other platforms, here and here.

Fact

No taxes have been imposed on graves in the Punjab province, and there is no proposal under consideration for such taxes, according to government officials.

Asia Gul, the special secretary of local government and community development in Lahore, called the online claims “fake.”

"The local government has not initiated any such proposal nor has the government approved any such suggestion," she stated.

Additionally, Aslam Nadeem, the director of administration and finance at the Punjab Shehr-e-Khamoshan Authority, which is responsible for establishing model graveyards throughout the province, also confirmed that he had not seen any such proposal and was unaware of any taxes on graves in the province.

Geo Fact Check reviewed the Punjab budget for 2024-2025 and found no mention of any taxes on graves.

A combined keyword and reverse search revealed that the clip of the local news channel being shared online was not recent and was actually from 2019.