Despite having received cold response from 96 percent of residential and commercial units, the Karach City District Government (CDGK) has issued utility tax bills to Karachiites along with arrears for second quarter.
According to sources in the Municipal Services Department of CDGK, the second bill of public utility charges (PUC) has been issued to residential and commercial sectors in its first zone of seven towns, including Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Malir, Gaddap, Landhi Korangi, Bin Qasim, and Shah Faisal.
They said that the second and third zones would also be issued the utility tax on May 20 and 31, respectively. The second bill of PUC would also include arrears of the previous quarter with 10 percent additional charges for not making payment on the given date.
They said that the city government was also considering to use another tactic to ensure payment of maximum amount of the bill as it had previously succeeded to receive only 4 percent of the total targeted revenue of the Rs 700 million to be collected through the new tax.
The collection of the tax through union councils and by using the "City Wardens" was under consideration, they added. They said in the fresh bills all complaints of the customers about mistakes and faults had been removed. However, Karachiites, being already burdened with numerous taxes, had previously shown unwillingness to pay PUC imposed by CDGK as an additional levy.
The people have again come to a shock that they received another bill with more than a double amount, which was not affordable due to their financial constraints. "Why should I pay the new tax for the services I am are already paying to the CDGK," an old man told Business Recorder on Monday in front of the Municipal Services Department.
"CDGK should collect the tax from those who use the roads through driving vehicles in order to carry out maintenance of infrastructure, instead of burdening the poverty-hit citizens with "unjustified" tax," he added.
According Masood Alam, Executive District Officer (EDO) for municipal services, due to some political interference and technical faults the city government could not achieve the expected goal. CDGK would knock the doors of courts to take legal action against all those consumers who had not paid the bill. Beside, he said, all kinds of sale and transfer of properties will also be subjected to payment of new charges levied from January 1, 2009.
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