Daily Times

Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has asked Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to pay Rs 1.38 billion on head of using water and sewerage facility of the entity, officials of KWSB have informed.

The KWSB in its claimant has informed that since the two entities had been segregated around 22 years back so all dues of water and sewerage connections of KMC were the right of KWSB. Around sixty seven water connections and hundreds of sewerage connections in several offices and more than 5,000 sites of KMC had been enjoying these facilities. Moreover housing and flat sites were also enjoying these two facilities. According to Water Entity, KMC was under debt of KWSB since it had not given a single penny on head of two taxes.

Managing Director KWSB Khalid Mahmood Sheikh in a letter to Municipal Commissioner Dr Saifur Rehman has suggested that a joint survey by both entities’ officials would be viable to gauge the magnitude of the matter to get accurate estimation of dues on head of taxes. “This way of joint survey will help in making things easy and also help to estimate accurate amount of dues”, MD KWSB remarked.

It is pertinent to mention here that KWSB had been charging Fire and Conservancy tax soon after its inception in 1996. But in 2010, KWSB stopped this practice as KMC imposed Municipal Utility and Charge Tax (MUCT) by curtailing previous two taxes on all commercial, residential and industrial units. KMC officials have claimed that different offices and residential areas including flat schemes currently being under control of KWSB were the property of KMC and Estate and Land charges of these sites would soon be imposed by KMC. Moreover, MUCT would also be included to the KMC tax regime, officials informed.

In another development, Mayor Waseem Akhtar had demanded government of Sindh to hand over control of KWSB in order to resolve the civic problems of the city. Contrary, Sindh government directed KWSB to collect water and sewerage charges from KMC, officials of KMC have maintained.

On ground, it was confirmed that KMC has been using these two facilities without paying tax for the last 22 years. “This situation had never been discussed in past by both entities and no such dispute was cropped between them on unknown reasons”, officials of KMC said.

KMC is the mother department of all civic bodies in light of Local Body laws. Water and sewerage system was under control of KMC. In 1954, a separate department in KMC was created for water system. Later in 1958, when Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was set up, water matter were handed over to KDA. In 1983, water and sewerage jobs including offices, installations and other assets came under KMC under government directives.

In 1996, under an Act by Sindh Assembly, KWSB became an independent entity. From 2001 to 2010, KWSB came under City District Government Karachi as its one component.

However, KWSB is entitled to claim taxes other civic levies after 2010 when it became an independent entity, officials of KMC were of the view.

Published in Daily Times, January 18^th 2019.