Ismail says he will not let KE collect KMC taxes at any cost

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has said that he will not at any cost let K-Electric (KE) collect taxes of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) from the residents of the city.

He made the unusual declaration to this effect that virtually put him on a collision course with the Sindh government while talking to media persons on Saturday after he attended the 6th convocation of the Karachi campus of the Isra University.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had recently proposed while chairing a meeting that the fire and conservancy tax of the KMC should be collected from the residents of Karachi via the monthly billing system of the KE for the financial viability of the city’s municipal authority.

The governor announced on Saturday that he would oppose the move of the Sindh government to collect the taxes of the KMC through monthly bills of the KE.

He said the Sindh government had apparently chosen the easiest way to collect the municipal taxes by adding them to the monthly electricity bills. “A person having the least resources duly pays the electricity bill while fearing that on account of non-payment, electricity could be disconnected,” Ismail said.

He added that instead of choosing the easiest way, the KMC should develop its capacity to collect taxes from the city. “The KE is not a tax collection agency and it should do its core work instead of getting involved in other’s work,” the governor maintained.

“I will convey the voice of the people to Prime Minister Imran Khan as this is an attempt to establish a wrong tradition. I am opposed to this proposal and will also ask the prime minister that it shouldn’t happen at any cost,” he said.

Ismail said the KE’s mandate was to supply electricity to Karachi and it was not mandated to do the tax collection work in the city.

To a question, he replied that the media had always highlighted the sorry state of affairs of the government-run schools in Sindh as there existed the phenomena of both ghost teachers and ghost schools in the province.

He said that media had also often reported that the premises of the government-run schools were being used to accommodate the livestock.

The governor expressed the hope that the Sindh government would take serious steps to resolve the flagrant issues of the education sector.

To another question, Ismail said he hoped that the Sindh government would seriously look into the allegations of school desks being purchased at much exorbitant rates as the deal involved the public money.