Mayor calls for reaching out to Karachi over FBR revenue report

The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) recent survey, according to Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar, proves his stance that Karachi contributes majorly to the country’s revenues, but no attention is given to the provision of basic amenities of the port city.

According to a press statement issued from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the mayor said that the citizens of Karachi were deprived of their basic civil rights. The government, he said, could enhance the national revenue collection by improving the infrastructure of the port city.

He asked that the policymakers should get a clear understanding of the situation of revenue recovery and the availability of basic civic facilities in Karachi. Akhtar was commenting on the FBR Survey Report conclusion with regard to revenue recovery in big cities of the country.

The FBR has released the result of the survey conducted in the markets of big cities by selecting a few markets from each city. Karachi markets include those located in Saddar, Tariq Road, Clifton, DHA, Gulistan-e- Jauhar, Golimar from where a record revenue of Rs30.87 billion was collected from 85,020 tax filers.

On the other hand, tax collected from Lahore’s Anarkali Market, Mall Road, Liberty and Hafeez Centre was Rs567billion from 3,925 tax filers. The mayor said FBR reported recovery of Rs1.092 billion from major markets in Rawalpindi from 6,560 tax filers, and in Faisalabad Rs141million from 2,266 tax filers. In Islamabad, recoveries of Rs1. 93 billion were made from 6,428 tax filers.

“I have been repeatedly bringing this to light that Karachi is the business hub of Pakistan and therefore its infrastructure needs lots of attention, but policymakers simply do not pay attention to this,” he said.

The broken roads, overflowing sewage and obsolete transport in Karachi were a cause of concern, he said. With no mega project or development works, Karachi still contributed chiefly to the national exchequer so this city must not be overlooked or neglected, he stressed.