The chief minister is requested to stop the LDA from extinguishing the already waning flame of industry
LAHORE: If you wish to know how to kill industry, follow the Lahore Development Authority’s (LDA) commercialisation drive on the Multan Road industrial area. Multan Road, starting from Thokar Niaz Beg towards Manga, has always been demarcated as an industrial area in the city’s layout plan. The Allama Iqbal Town administration has been collecting the annual fees from the area’s establishments. Now, the LDA claims the area has come under its jurisdiction, which has resulted in a tussle between Allama Iqbal Town and the LDA.
Wherever collection of government revenue is involved, a dispute over which entity should be handling this function arises. The LDA demands a commercialisation fee of Rs100,000 per marla. Which industrial unit will be able to survive after paying an exorbitant commercialisation fee of Rs2 million per kanal? The Punjab chief minister should reconsider his ambitious plans to build mega projects. A country heavily under debt cannot afford to spend so much on unproductive projects, which are financed by taxpaying businesses and individuals. Industrial units are being coerced to pay for commercialisation, when such units also have industrial power meters installed and pay sales tax on manufactured goods. The chief minister is requested to stop the LDA from extinguishing the already waning flame of industry that has barely managed to survive under the most unfriendly and difficult conditions.
Iftekhar A Khan
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2015.
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