Akhtar slams new tax collection mechanism

Says Sindh government is being run on policies of bad governance

KARACHI:

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) Deputy Convener Waseem Akhtar slammed the Sindh government's plan to collect KMC conservancy tax through electricity bills.

This mechanism to collect the conservancy tax was suggested by the newly-appointed KMC Administrator Murtaza Qahan and approved by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

He said that the Sindh government was creating negative policies and working on the principles of bad governance.

Addressing a crowded press conference at the party's Bahadurabad office on Thursday, the MQM-P leader and former city mayor said the Sindh government wanted to take control of all institutions under the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to mint more money from the city.

"We want the people of Karachi to know what is going to happen to them," he said. "The recently planned collection of conservancy tax is unjustified." The party leader said the tax would be made a mandatory part of the electric bill, implying that non-payers would also have their electricity cut off.

He said the levy came into force through a resolution made at the level of council and was, in effect, collected through a separate bill from 2006 to 2010. At that time, Akhtar said, the water board and other institutions were under the control of the city's mayor and the people were voluntarily paying those taxes seeing good work.

Wasim Akhtar further said that Bilawal Zardari had forgotten the pathetic condition of Larkana and Thar, yet urges talks over Afghanistan. "The PPP demands a joint session on Afghanistan. but fails to recognise the problems of Sindh," he said. He urged the PPP co-chairperson to call for a joint session on Karachi instead.

The former mayor alleged that the Sindh government was also minting on money reserved for graveyards, while also embezzling the funds meant for corona vaccines.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2021.