KMC missed collecting revenue from tens of thousands of units: Contractor had no receipts to collect municipal tax, CM told

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday approved a Rs170m grant for KMC.

He took this decision at a meeting to review the financial condition of the KMC which has failed to pay salaries to its senior employees for the months of November and December.

The meeting was attended among others by Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah and Law Adviser Murtaza Wahab.

The chief minister said that it was quite disturbing to know that the metropolitan corporation had been bogged down in a financial crisis and was unable to pay salaries to its senior officers.

"We have to overhaul various wings of the KMC, particularly those which are responsible for revenue collection," he said.

The chief minister said that Korangi DMC had curtailed its expenditure on account of garbage removal to Rs9 million only from Rs20 million through better management while DMC Central had enhanced its collection from shops and other such establishments.

The chief minister said that the KMC had valuable assets such as parks and wondered why the municipality had not been operating them on the public-private partnership mode to turn them into a reasonable source of revenue.

KMC administrator Laiq Ahmed told the chief minister that there were around 1.4 million establishments/properties from where the KMC collected the Municipal Utility and Conservancy Tax (MUCT), but this time round it could only collect Rs280 million from 35,000 units.

He said the contractor had had no printed bills/receipts to collect the tax.

The chief minister said that the KMC had the potential to collect Rs1.5 billion only against the MUCT, and it could auction the services of its petrol pumps and marriage grounds to the highest bidders.

"I want you to prepare a financial model and present it within the next 15 days, and then I'll add necessary input to make the KMC a rich organization," he said.

The chief minister also directed the local government department to issue a notification to take back collection of tax from the mobile phone towers from the SBCA and hand it over to the KMC.

Whatever collection the SBCA had made so far should be paid back to the KMC, he directed.

The chief minister said that he would be reviewing KMC financial position fortnightly.

He also constituted a committee headed by Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah to submit its recommendations to make the KMC a financially stable organization.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021