KARACHI: Sindh Minister for local Government, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has directed KMC administrator to revise the rent of 71 markets and 274 huts of KMC located at Hawksbay.
The minister also directed to identify the land in city for establishing new petrol stations. Shah gave these instruction while presiding over first meeting of committee formed to explore the new avenues for revenue generation for Karachi Metropolitan Corporation on Wednesday.
Secretary Local Government, Najam Ahmed Shah, Administrator KMC Laeq Ahmed, Director General PPP Khalid Khan, Municipal Commissioner Syed M. Afzal Zaidi, Senior Director KMC Masood Alam, Director General Sindh Building Authority Shamsuddin Soomro and others attended the meeting.
He said that neither new tax would be levied nor any increase would be made in exiting taxes. He was of view that tax collection system should be made transparent and it must be ensured that all the revenue should go to government exchequer instead of any one’s pocket.
The minister said that Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and District Municipal Corporation could resolve the issues of pension and dues of employees with increase in revenue generation and prosper utilization of their assets.
The minister spoke with the Senior Member Board of Revenue Qazi Shahid Pervaiz and directed him to make the transfer of properties in the city conditional to the clearance of Municipal Utility Charges/tax and no property should be transferred without clearance certificate of KMC.
He also directed that Municipal Utility Charges/Tax collection of commercial establishments should be out sourced in first phase so as to achieve 100 percent collection target. The minister sought details of litigation along with period of pendency against KMC within three days and issued order for the suspension of Director KMC Law and advised to higher the services of reputable law firms to end litigations due to which KMC was bearing billions of loss of revenue. The minister said that expenditure of law firms would be borne by Sindh government.
The minister added that legal bottleneck should be removed to increase the rent of 11 exiting petrol pumps of KMC. He said that two or three markets should be selected out of 71 KMC’s markets for preparing proposal on public private partnership mode.
He was a view that survey should be conducted to find out of exact number of shops and other properties of the KMC. The minister said that proposal also should also be prepared for grant mall / plaza on the 100 quarters located near Glass Tower with substitute abode in PPP mode.
The minister also directed to utilize the Fiazi Rehman Auditorium located near Arts Council of Pakistan and dispute on Saddar Parking Plaza between KMC and KDA should also be sorted out within week.
“Karachi Metropolitan corporation owns valuable assets, need is to utilize them in proper way,” the minister concluded.