Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to increase charges for the issuance of no objection certificates (NOCs) for building petrol/CNG filling stations.

Currently, the charges for getting an NOC are: Rs 2,500 per square yard against the total area of filling station, Rs 125,000 as case processing fee, and Rs 25,000 as annual departmental charges. These rates were approved by the CDA Board in 2013.

CDA also charges a one-time Rs 500,000 conversion fee for converting petrol stations into CNG stations or vice versa.

“Islamabad Mayor CDA Shaikh Ansar Aziz directed officials to revise the fee because he believes that it should be revised after every two years,” an official source told Daily Times.

“A summary in this regard has been prepared by the Planning Wing in consultation with Finance Wing. It will soon be placed before the CDA Board for final approval,” he said.

“The summary recommends three options: a 10 percent raise, 20 percent raise or a 30 percent increase in the existing rates. It is up to the board to make the final decision,” the source said.

Though the civic body is increasing NOC charges for fuel stations, it has failed to collect direct access and right of way charges set by its board two years ago.

The charges were supposed to be collected by the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) from the owners of petrol pumps, CNG stations and housing societies.

In its meeting held on December 24, 2014, the CDA Board had decided to collect uniform charges from all petrol pumps, CNG stations and housing societies who gained direct access to main roads through CDA owned land.

The meeting decided that petrol pumps and CNG stations would pay Rs 50,000 per month, housing societies with up to 400 kanals would pay Rs 266,000 per month, and hosing societies between 401 to 800 kanals would pay Rs 562,000 per month. Housing societies with more than 800 kanals of area were directed to pay Rs 800,000 per month.

The decision further stated that the said charges would be imposed from the date of this decision and the owners would be asked to deposit the charges for five years in advance. After the completion of the five-year period, the charges would be collected on monthly basis.

The decision was also published in the Gazette of Pakistan in June, 2015. It was also conveyed to the DMA for further action by Planning Wing. However, the formation failed to collect any amount in this regard, causing a loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.

The DMA director was unavailable for comments.

However, Planning and Design Member Asad Mehboob Kiani told Daily Times that he was unaware of any such issue.

“It was the duty of DMA to collect these charges. If it fails to do so, then we will take action. The dues will be collected from everyone without any discrimination,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, August 7^th 2017.