Although the Sindh High Court has given go-ahead signal to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for collecting Public Utility Charges (PUC), the Karachiities are reluctant to pay the same due to the corporation's bad service delivery. The people of Karachi are of the view that the KMC instead of taking measures to facilitate the citizens is burdening them financially by issuing such municipal bills.
Khurram Alam, a resident of Gulbahar colony while talking to this scribe said, "I have lodged several complaints regarding gushing sewage in my area which is creating serious health hazards, but no official from KMC has so far addressed my complaints. However, the KMC has now started issuing municipal bills to the consumers for its services."
The defunct City District Government Karachi (CDGK) had introduced the infrastructure tax through a resolution adopted by the city council on June 2, 2008 and later changed its name to public utility charges (PUC) after it came to know that infrastructure tax was a provincial subject. The defunct CDGK had initially issued the bills to residents of different areas of the city in 2009.
Terming PUC bill unjustified in circumstances when masses have been hit hard by inflation, a social welfare organisation, Pasban, challenged the tax in Sindh High Court. After several hearings the court dismissed the petition about six months ago, observing that the matter did not fall under SHC purview, legal advisor of Pasban Abu Bakar Usman said.
He said that the defunct CDGK had crossed its limits through merging fire and conservancy tax in the utility bill, a tax which was included in water bill of Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB). He said that fire and conservancy tax, which was Rs 16 per month, has been mentioned as Rs 150 in this bill. Sources said that defunct CDGK failed to achieve its target of collecting PUC of last two years, which amounted to about Rs 400 million per annum.
Business Recorder learnt that now the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) after promulgation of SLGO 1979 has come up with new strategy to resume collection of PUC from citizens. The Municipal Utility Charges & Tax Department (MUC&TD) of KMC has again started issuing PUC bills to citizens after a brief halt. "We would facilitate the citizens at maximum after charging a nominal amount," said Director (MUC&TD) Tariq Naseer.
He said the utility bills were aimed at providing fire fighting services, marinating civic amenities, ensuring cleanliness of streets on war footing basis and to upkeep street lights installations. "Availability of one window computerised record of all payments, facilitating smooth transaction at the time of sale, transfer, gift, inheritance and registration of property are the some the privileges for taxpayers", he mentioned.
He said that 5 percent of the outstanding dues would be included in each bill. Tariq Naseer informed that they started distribution of bills from February 13. He said that they would initially tax some 1.2 million in first phase, however he refused to mention that which areas of city they have selected to collect the utility tax in the first phase.
"We would collect tax from all the houses falling under KMC jurisdiction," he added. He said that the department had set a target of Rs 3 billion for 2012. For residential units, he said a house on 40 to 80 square yards is required to pay Rs 70, 81 to 120 square yards Rs 150, 121 to 240 square yards Rs 200, 241 to 500 yards Rs 300, 501 to 1,000 yards Rs 500, and a house on 1,001 square yards and above has to pay Rs 800 as utility tax.
For commercial buildings, he said a unit measuring up to 200 square yards is charged at Rs 500, 201 to 500 yard Rs 1,000, 501 to 1,000 yards Rs 1,500, 1,001 to 2,000 yards Rs 2,000, 2,001 to 3,000 yards Rs 2,500, 3,001 to 5,000 yards Rs 3,000, units on 5,001 yards and above Rs 5,000. Regarding industrial amenity plots, he said that plots measuring up to 1,000 square yards are charged at a rate of Rs 500, 1,001 to 5,000 square-yard plots at Rs 1,000 and 5,001 square yards and above were charged at a rate of Rs 2,000.
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