KE to collect fire, conservancy taxes

Consumers to pay KMC levies along with power bills

KARACHI:

K-Electric and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation will devise a joint mechanism by which the former can collect taxes for the latter through electricity bills.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, presiding over a joint meeting of the two entities, decided to devise the mechanism to collect taxes through electricity bills so that recovery could be ensured.

KMC Administrator Murtaza Wahab, while briefing the chief minister, said KMC has 13 taxes to collect from people living in the corporation’s limits.

“Out of 13 taxes, KE may collect only two taxes, fire and conservancy, through its bills,” he said. He disclosed that the KMC hardly collected Rs220 million annually from both the taxes.

He proposed that the KE collect Rs100 to Rs200 as fire and conservancy tax from 2.5 million consumers through electricity bills every month. He added that this would help KMC generate around Rs9 billion annually.

The chief minister said he was working to strengthen local bodies of Karachi and make them financially stable so they could serve citizens through their own resources.

“The KMC used to be a welloff organization, but for the last decade, it has been crippled financially,” he said. KE chief, Moonis Alvi, said he had no objection collecting taxes on behalf of the KMC, but would have to seek permission from the federal government.