Wahab accepts mayor’s challenge for debate on Rs39bn given to KMC

Sindh Information and Law Adviser on Monday accepted the challenge of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar to hold a live debate on the question of how Rs39 billion disbursed by the Sindh government to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had been spend during the last three years.

“I accept the challenge of the mayor Karachi as I am ready to hold a live debate with him on any public forum or television channel on this issue,” he said while talking to journalists at the Sindh Assembly.

The adviser said the mayor had failed to answer where the Rs39 billion given by the provincial government had been spent except paying salaries to the employees of the KMC. He said the KMC had failed to meet its own revenue targets.

No Ramazan package

Wahab said the Sindh government in the current year lacked the financial capacity to offer any special Ramazan package for the masses of the province owing to the reason that Rs130 billion were still payable by the centre to the province.

“The provincial government will be in a position to give any package to the people once this money is paid to it,” he said. He noted that the federal government had failed to meet its revenue targets in the current financial year as it would be facing a shortfall of Rs 480 billion by the end of the current financial year. He said the change of the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue would do no good in this regard.

He said that less collection of revenue by the federal government would have a direct knock-on effect on the provinces as this in turn would increase the financial burden on the masses. Wahab said the Sindh government in the current financial year had collected Rs126.8 billion in revenue and this showed a six percent increase. He said the federal and Punjab governments didn’t show any progress in the current financial year in revenue collection.

He said the Sindh government should be given its due share of money from the federal divisible pool as agreed upon in the National Finance Commission award so that the province could spend on development works and social sectors, including public health.

He severely decried the decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to appoint a person as new governor of the State Bank of Bank who belonged to the International Monetary Fund. Barrister Wahab said the federal government had completely failed to overcome price hikes of essential commodities and unemployment in the country.