KARACHI: Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is to recover Rs 32 billion in terms of Municipality Utility Tax (MUT) from a number of government, private and corporate sector units. Senior Director MUT KMC Raza Rizvi said the corporation has finally decided to launch a drive from Monday for the recovery of pending taxes. He said KMC MUT department would soon get magisterial powers from the government of Sindh in order to streamline their collection process. It is to be noted that former City Nazim Mustafa Kamal had imposed MUT in 2009. This remained a controversial tax and due to lethargy of KMC’s MUT collection unit the amount elevated and is conducive for KMC’s financial crunch. The last date of depositing MUT is October 22nd. Around 13,000 taxpayers have deposited Rs 450 million in the heads of MUT and majority among them were private and some corporate sector units. In the first phase of tax collection drive, KMC decided to take action against 13 multinational, national and some government defaulters which are defaulting on Rs 424m. A gas company defaulting on more than Rs 151 million will be sealed on Monday (today) and no employee would be allowed to enter their offices. Most of the MUT commercial, industrial and private defaulters belong to district south, district east and district Korangi. According to details, Aga Khan Foundation is defaulting on Rs 4.47m; Radio Pakistan (Karachi center) is to pay Rs 32m; Arabian Sea Enterprises Civil Line has to pay Rs 31m; Macro al-Habib Group (Gulshan-e-Zahoor) will have to pay Rs 22m; State Life Building owes Rs 22m; Pakistan Airline Pilot Association owes Rs 11m; International Complex Sindbad is to pay Rs 11m; Behram Morewanikanawala owes Rs 12m; and Mayfair Enterprises Private (Ltd.) will have to pay Rs 13m. KMC stated that almost 60% citizens residing in more than 550 slums are not paying a single penny on account of any kind of tax. All industrial areas including North Karachi, Federal B Area, Landhi Korangi, Orangi and SITE are also not paying MUT regularly.