Confounding: FBR blamed for civic agency’s financial ineptitude

CDA staff says account freeze over non-payment of taxes is taxman’s fault.

ISLAMABAD:

In a befuddling effort to get staff salaries paid, the head of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) labour union is blaming the taxman for the civic agency’s incompetent financial management.

“The CDA Mazdoor Union has decided to stage a sit-in in front of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) head office for freezing the CDA’s accounts.

The FBR will be solely responsible in case of any law and order situation,” said a statement issued by the office of the CDA Mazdoor Union general secretary on Saturday.

Salaries for 15,000 employees have gone unpaid because the FBR froze the CDA’s bank accounts in late June over non-payment of more than Rs500 million in back taxes.

“Instead of protesting against the FBR, the labour union should protest
against the poor financial policies of city managers and should change the venue of the protest to the chairman’s office,” commented an official of the authority while talking to The Express Tribune.



The labour union statement further said that with Ramazan fast-approaching, the non-payment of salaries has aggravated the miseries of poor employees.

“It causes resentment amongst CDA employees,” the press statement reads. The general secretary of the labour union said the FBR and CDA are both government institutions and should resolve the situation bilaterally.

The union has also appealed the prime minister and finance minister to intervene and resolve the issue of their salaries at the earliest.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2013.