Control of KMC's revenue generating departments rests with Sindh government: mayor

Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar on Friday said Sindh Government had taken all revenue generating departments of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) under Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA-2013), putting the civic body into severe financial quagmire. Addressing a press conference at his office, Waseem said if these departments were returned to KMC, it would have been able to generate annual revenue of Rs15 billion, and that was sufficient enough to mitigate the monetary needs of the corporation. No further financial assistance will be required by KMC if only these departments are returned to KMC.
Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah is asking me to enhance revenue and recoveries of KMC. But my question is, how can KMC enhance its recovery when it did not have such departments with it. The mega city of the country that generates around 70 percent revenue to the national exchequer can't be run by the entry fee of Karachi Zoo or from the shop rents, he said.
The Sindh Government collects Rs4.5 to 5 billion from the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and Master Plan which are purely civic organisations and also collets Rs300 to 400billion from other taxes. Citizens of Karachi have right on these resources and this revenue belongs to Karachi.
In order to bring improvement in the city and solve the problems, the mayor reiterated his demand that all such departments should be given back to KMC in accordance with the law. He said the water crisis has worsened in the city and the chief minister had also admitted the faults in the K-IV project. "Water theft and leakage should be managed if we want to make the situation better," he said.
Under the prevailing system, Waseem said that it was not possible for anyone to improve these things. The K-Electric disconnected the supply of electricity to KMC Office since a week and we did not have the resources to pay the electricity bill. The disbursement of salary and pension with other affairs stopped due to this and the staff was working while sitting in balconies.
He said our revenue depends on the octroi zila tax (OZT) share from the provincial government. Sindh Government had taken the recovery departments from KMC under SLGA 2013 or given to District Municipal Corporations (DMCs) which are directly controlled by the Sindh Government. He also gave the example of local taxes and advertisement, charged parking fee, lease of katchi abadies and income from oil tankers parking terminal. Deputy Mayor Syed Arshad Hasan, City Council's Parliamentary Leader Aslam Shah Afridi and Chairman Khurram Farhan were also present on this occasion.