LAHORE, Jan 15; National Reconstruction Bureau chairman Daniyal Aziz has ruled out the possibility of restoration of octroi and 'zila' tax and said no decision has been taken regarding appointment of administrators in the district governments.

He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Saturday. He said the two taxes would never be restored despite hectic efforts of a lobby because the federal government was giving 3.5 per cent of general sales tax to the local governments in lieu of the levies.

The lobby wanted restoration of the taxes on the ground that the GST was being distributed from 1998 on the basis of 1981 census despite significant increase in the population.

Moreover, a sum of Rs45 billion was stuck with the provincial governments for the past three years and was not being passed on to the district governments. Mr Aziz said the local governments election process would start in April as announced by President Gen Musharraf.

The Chief Election Commissioner would announce the schedule and decide about holding the elections in one or more phases. The NRB chairman said the government had also decided to hold the elections of the union councils in cantonment boards after amending the 1924 Cantonment Boards Act.

The UC Nazims in cantonments would be members of the district councils and Naib Nazims those of the town councils. He said the union council Nazims would be elected directly whereas the town and district Nazims by the councils. Town and district Naib Nazims would now contest elections separately instead of being joint candidates.

He said no decision had so far been taken to reduce the number of councillors. This suggestion was given by the provincial governments for reducing the expenditure if it was decided to pay them honorarium.

He said women and minority councillors could be given honorarium in the light of a case pending before the Supreme Court. Mr Aziz said the government had changed the colonial system in which judicial, executive, police and revenue collection powers were concentrated in the hands of commissioners for obliging a particular class.

They controlled the elected representatives instead of being accountable before them and having good relations with them was considered an honour. He said a change had been considered necessary in the colonial system because it had given rise to corruption and the concept of ruling by turn among the politicians.

Merit had been replaced by recommendation because democratic system continued to be interrupted again and again. Army took a difficult decision of a drastic change in the colonial system through bureaucracy by devolving power and placing the administration under the control of elected representatives.

He said the district governments had increased revenue collection by 40 per cent without increasing the taxes. All the 4,022 union councils, 350 towns and 102 districts were receiving funds for payments of salaries to their employees.

Earlier, LCCI president Mian Misbahur Rehman said the number of taxes had increased under the new system and every industry was paying 30 taxes. The district governments were authorized to collect education, health and motor tax, fee for licences, toll on new roads and bridges in addition to provincial and federal government taxes.

He said the NRB should study and propose merger of 30 taxes into two or three. He stressed the need for solving the problem of corruption and law and order due to weak control of Nazims over the police. He also suggested using the district governments for controlling the pollution problem faced by the industry in the post-WTO scenario.

Senior vice-president Sohail Lashari said devolution had changed the colonial system but the practices of the officials had remained unchanged. Former president Iftikhar Malik stressed the need for giving representation of businessmen in parliament under the technocrats quota.