“The CDA received resounding response from the investors on the first day of the grand auction of commercial plots,” says official. PHOTO: FILE.
If Islamabad were a person, it would be one approaching retirement age without having worked a day in its life. For over 50 years, the city’s balance sheet has barely managed to stay in the black, thanks largely to the sale of land.
Till today, revenue generation measures to make the civic agency self sustaining --- whether municipal taxes or otherwise --- have failed. What will happen when there is no more land to sell?
City managers were “happy” on Tuesday as they received “good results” during the first day of land auctioning, as claimed by one of the CDA Board’s members.
“The CDA received resounding response from the investors on the first day of the grand auction of commercial plots,” said a statement issued by the authority.
However, not everyone is happy.
“They are happy like an inept son, who feels, for the time being, that he is the happiest person on the earth after continually receiving large sum of money against his inherited land. But one day, he will come to know he sold all the land and has nowhere left to go,” said a senior official of the authority, who has been critical of the CDA’s land selling spree.
The authority received bids worth Rs2.6 billion against 10 commercial plots on Tuesday, with the highest bid of Rs456,000 per square yard coming for an 888.88 square yard plot in, while a 1,777.77 square yard plot in G-11 Markaz got the lowest bid of Rs181,000 per square yard.
The city managers have recently extended the payment period from two to nine months for auctioned commercial plots. Under the new schedule, successful bidders will have to submit 25 per cent of the total amount within three days of their bid being accepted by the CDA board, while, the remaining 75 per cent will be paid out in three equal quarterly installments.
The decision was taken following the receipt of a large number of complaints from the civic agency’s Finance Wing, where buyers of commercial plots in the last two open auctions had failed to submit premium amounts within two months, resulting in the cancellation of auctions of several prized plots.
The auction committee, headed by the CDA Finance member, would submit its recommendations to the CDA Board, which is the final authority to approve or reject the bids offered.
On the second day of auctioning (Wednesday), 10 more commercial plots will be on offer.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2013.
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