Not only is this agreement illegal, it is also a financial disaster for the KMC.
KARACHI: There are two kinds of citizens — one that pays taxes and one that doesn’t. Taxation revenue is what builds our cities’ infrastructure and public works. But what about the case in which the public works body refuses to collect taxes and sells the rights to collect tax to a third party? This is exactly what has happened in the case of charged parking in one of Karachi’s busiest commercial areas.
This issue came to light subsequent to Shehri’s Freedom of Information request to the KMC on charged parking by-laws. In the course of events it was revealed that the KMC has handed over Charged Parking to the CPLC on Zaibunnisa Street and Abdullah Haroon Road. The revenue earned through charged parking is a form of local tax that can only be deposited in the government treasury. The revenue cannot to be given away to a third party — in this case, the CPLC. The agreement signed between the KMC and the CPLC clearly states that the revenues collected from the charged parking project will be credited to the CPLC. The agreement is also quite one sided — the expense of printing charged parking receipts will be borne by the city government and yet revenues will go to a third party. Furthermore, there was no public auction for the rights to collect charged parking in the area. The whole deal was done behind closed doors without allowing any public objections.
With the KMC already failing to perform as well as it should be, the added loss of revenue will only make things worse. Not only is this agreement illegal, it is also a financial disaster for the KMC. On the one hand, the KMC is denying salaries to its employees claiming low revenue collections and on the other it is handing over its own lucrative revenue streams to others.
We at Shehri urge the citizens of Karachi to take on a more proactive role in holding our governments and public works organisations accountable for decisions that will ultimately affect us — the citizens of Karachi. You can write to Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, KMC Administrator, and Raza Abbas Rizvi, Director Charged Parking, highlighting your concerns. You can also contact us at info@shehri.org for more information on the case.
Shehri-CBE
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
