KARACHI, Jan 17: The city government is losing a considerably handsome amount annually under the head of the outdoor advertising only due to the absence of a consensus among different tiers of the local government.

Millions of rupees in the high-potential field can be collected from the advertisers but no authority has been entrusted, ever since the introduction of the new local government system, with the collection of the fee. The only hitch in finalizing and adopting a policy appeared to be the unresolved issue of revenue-sharing formula.

Through an amendment to the SLGO in July last year, the head of outdoor advertising was transferred from town administration to city government. Town administrations have constantly been demanding a consensus on some sort of sharing formula but no progress has so far been made in this regard.

At a meeting held on Sept 3 last year at the city government’s head office, Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen of towns, had expressed strong reservations over the amendment but agreed to wait till the finalization of a revenue-sharing formula.

The meeting had decided to constitute committees each headed by the concerned Town Nazim. A town officer and a representative of the City Nazim were the members of the committee. The committees have so far failed to deliver as the issue of revenue-sharing could not be taken up by the concerned parties.

The amendment provides for the transfer of all the records, pertaining to the outdoor advertising, from town administration to the city government. The town administrations have also shown an increase in the revenue generation by them as compared to the defunct District Municipal Councils which had previously been entrusted with the job.

Apart from the documented outdoor advertisers, the mushroom growth of illegal subscribers indicates at the possibility of extraordinary increase in revenue generation if they are also covered honestly and properly.

“The only solution to the problem is to settle the issue of revenue-sharing on the basis of size and locality,” Muslim Pervaiz, Nazim of Gulberg Town Union Council and the Chief Presiding Officer of the City Council, opined. Elaborating his idea, he said that the collection of fee for shops’ sign boards and other small signboards be entrusted with the UCs and the revenues should also go to the UCs. He said the medium-size sign boards, hoardings on main roads be covered by the town administrations whereas those of large-size and installed along major roads being looked after by the city government should be covered by the city government. — PPI