CM Sindh approves Rs170m grant for KMC

Vows to make KMC a financially strong organisation

KARACHI:

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday vowed to make Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) a financially stable organisation by giving it a workable financial model and reorganising its various wings responsible for revenue collection.

The chief minister, for this purpose, constituted a committee, headed by Minister Local Government Syed Nasir Shah, Adviser for Law Murtaza Wahab, Secretary Local Government Najam Shah and Administrator KMC Laiq Ahmed to submit their recommendations to make KMC financially stable.

Murad Ali Shah took the decision while presiding over a meeting to review the financial condition of KMC. Syed Nasir Shah, Murtaza Wahab, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Najam Shah, Laiq Ahmed and other concerned officers attended the meeting. KMC has failed to pay salaries to its senior employees from the months of November and December 2020.

The chief minister said that it was quite disturbing to know that Karachi, being the industrial hub of the country, was financially running the entire country but its metropolitan corporation had bogged down in the financial crisis and was unable to pay salaries to its senior officers.

“We have to overhaul various wings of the KMC, particularly those which are responsible for revenue collection,” he said.

Nasir Shah said that the DMCs, under the guidance of the chief minister, have not only curtailed their non-development expenditures but have enhanced their revenue collection.

Quoting the example of the DMC South, Nasir Shah said that it used to collect Rs9 million from charged parking and has now increased the collection to Rs750 million.

“This is something to plug the pilferages,” the chief minister said.

The minister also said that the DMC Korangi used to utilise Rs20 million on picking garbage from their area but have managed to curtail the expenditure to Rs9 million only due to better management.

Similarly, the DMC Central has enhanced its collection from shops and other such establishments.

The chief minister said that the KMC has valuable assets; beautiful parks in the city and huts along the beach. He questioned why the Pakistan Peoples Patry (PPP) was not operating KMC so that the assets would be maintained properly and would become a reasonable source of revenue.

The KMC administrator, briefing the chief minister said that there were around 1.4 million establishments from where the KMC collected Municipal Utility & Conservancy Tax (MUCT). However, this time it could have only collected Rs280 million from 35,000 units.

He said the contractor had no printed receipts to collect the tax.

The chief minister said that the KMC has the potential to collect Rs1.5 billion only against MUCT and it could auction the services of its petrol pumps and marriage grounds to the highest bidders.

“I want you to prepare a financial model and present it within the next 15 days. After that I’ll add necessary input to make the KMC a rich organisation,” he said.

He also directed the Local Government Department to issue a notification to take back collection of tax from Mobile Phone Towers from SBCA and hand it over to KMC. “The collection whatever the SBCA has made so far should be paid back to KMC,” he directed.

The chief minister approved a Rs170 million grant for KMC so that it could clear salaries of its senior employees. He also said that he would be reviewing KMC's financial position fortnightly.