The District Council, Faisalabad, has approved the allotment of contracts for receiving the toll tax on different highways under the supervision of district government, and taxes on land, shops and trades of different kinds with a clear-cut majority.
This approval was accorded in a special meeting of District Council here on Monday at the Jinnah Hall and was presided over by District Naib Nazim/Convener Chaudhry Raza Nasrullah Ghumman. District Nazim Chaudhry Zahid Nazir, EDOs Finance, Community Development, Literacy, Agriculture, Waseem Ajmal Ch; Chaudhry Shabbir Ahmad, Asif Tarar, Ashraf Cheema, Excise & Taxation Officer Syed Ashiq Hussain and other concerned attended the meeting.
Presenting the details of different kinds of auctioned contracts in the house for approval, District Nazim Chaudhry Zahid Nazir said that repairs, construction and maintenance of 3,600-km-long roads of different areas of Faisalabad district was one of the major responsibilities of the district government for which earnest and sincere efforts were required to be made for increasing financial resources.
He said the levying of toll tax and collection of different sorts of license fees had been done very honestly with good intentions in a highly transparent manner by the "Auction Committee", in which chairmen monitoring committees for Excise and Revenue departments were also included.
After the discussion/arguments made by different members of the district council, he also presented some amendments in the house, which were unanimously approved.
The contracts approved would be valid for the next six months.
According to the details the contract of toll tax on Sargodha Road has been auctioned for Rs 6.3 million, Jhang Road Rs 4.6 million, Risalewala Road Rs 6.305 million, Khurrianwala to Jaranwala Road Rs 0.43 million, while the contract of toll tax of Jaranwala to Satiana Road has been auctioned for Rs 0.28 million.
During the meeting, under the amended notification, the approval was accorded for the collection of license fee from the stockists of kerosene oil, diesel and mobile oil at the rate of Rs 1,000 annually, while the retailers would have to pay Rs 300 annually as license fee.
For beverage industry the annual license fee would be Rs 10,000, spinning mills Rs 15,000, large and small chemical mills Rs 20,000, and Rs 10,000, respectively, sizing industry, yarn doubling machine and "Taki" factory Rs 1,000 each, while for cotton ginning factory and storage (all kinds of godowns) license fee of Rs 10,000 each annually has been approved.
In the meeting EDO (Finance) Waseem Ajmal explained the scope and functions of the district government and rules and regulations of auction under the Local Government's Ordinance, in reply to the objections/apprehensions expressed by different members.
Earlier, in the beginning of the session, the death of father of Union Nazim Munir Chishti and mother of Union Nazim Rana Naeem Dastagir was condoled and fateha was offered for the departed souls.
After the presentation of the details of toll tax and other contracts for approval in the house by District Nazim Rana Naeem Dastgir, Chaudhry Hanif, Tariq Bashir Ghouri, Chaudhry Ejaz, Imran Waince, Mian Salim, advocate, Arshad Dogar, Muhammad lqbal Shahid, Chaudhry Munir, Malik Zafar lqbal, Anwari Khanum, Jamil Ahmed, advocate, Shafique Mughal, Muhammad Yahya Nasir, lqbal Qureshi, Javed Rafique, Shahnaz Sajid, Khalid Mahmood, Khawaja Ejaz Munna, Atteqa Nazli, and others participated in detailed discussion.