22 October 2004	Friday	07 Ramazan 1425

KOHAT, Oct 21: The district government is considering a plan to impose tax on heavy vehicles using the four inter city routes of Kohat-Rawalpindi, Kohat-Bannu, Kohat-Parachinar and Kohat-Peshawar to generate funds for development projects in the area.

The district planning officer, Waheedur Rehman, informed Dawn on Thursday that the income of the district from its own resources was almost nil and it relied entirely on grants from the provincial and federal governments.

He said that he had proposed additional taxes for the generation of revenue but the public representatives were not ready to put extra burden on the people.

The plan to impose double taxation was being seen as impractical by many in the district council who believed that the transporters were already paying huge taxes on the Indus Highway at the Kohat Tunnel and on the Rawalpindi route.

The city nazim, Syed Tariq Hussain Shah, meanwhile, had already rejected a proposal of the district council wherein it had been suggested that professional tax be imposed on the shopkeepers, tailors, cobblers as well as introduce extra tax on houses and commercial buildings.

While defending his stance he told Dawn that as 98 per cent of the business activity was carried out within the city limits and the income thus generated would be distributed among all the 27 union councils under the district government rules therefore it would be an injustice to the city dwellers to do so.

On the other hand the district government failed to utilize community council board funds of the last three years due to disagreement among the members of the council over the distribution formula.

Instead of involving the communities in the development of their respective areas and proposing different schemes the district government continued its interference thus hindering progress.

More than Rs10 million were yet to be sanctioned for the CCBs for which the government had received at least 20 applications where the projects mentioned were feasible.

The district planning officer further informed that out of Rs10 million Rs8.207 million was the amount which was to be used during financial years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 whereas Rs1.9 million had been set aside in the current fiscal for the CCBs which could not be used for certain reasons.

The district council had decided that the funds for the CCBs would be distributed among all the 27 union councils equally so that people from all the areas could benefit from the scheme.