December 03, 2006	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 11, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 2: The municipal administrations of different towns in the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) have taken measures to increase revenue from annual trade licence fee.

The administration of Saddar Town, which encompasses most congested commercial areas, has fixed a reduced flat rate of Rs300 for small sale points. In contrast, the Jamshed Town administration has recommended 30pc increase in the trade licence fee in view of rising property prices.

Trade Licence-in-Charge Khan Mohammad Sial told Dawn on Saturday that if the proposal was approved by the town council the trade licence fee for a car showroom would be raised from Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 and for a small shop to Rs500 from Rs360. The town earned a revenue of just Rs700,000 from trade licence fee during 2005-06. Presently, it has 5,500 commercial units.

Deputy Town Officer Saddar Bashir Ahmed said that the licence fee of various commercial units had been drastically reduced on the request of trade associations.

These associations had assured Saddar Town Nazim Mohammad Dilawar that if the rates were reduced the revenue of the town would increase manifold. The revenue collected by the town last year was Rs3.3 million. The town has a total of 50,000 to 60,000 commercial units.

According to the revised rates the fee for a cloth shop had been reduced from Rs600 to Rs300, small godowns from Rs700 to Rs300, electronic shop from Rs360 to Rs300, furniture shop from Rs1,500 to Rs300. The existing licence fee for PCOs was Rs600; call points Rs1,000 and video game shops Rs1,000.

The Gulshan Town administration has started a registration drive to get bring more trade entities under the licence fee net. Anis Zaidi, the town finance officer, said that it was expected that the number of registered units would rise to 50,000 from 12,000 units in the town.

He hoped that the town would be generating around Rs10 million against a meagre sum of Rs0.4 million. “The town has no plans to increase the trade licence fee but is making efforts to increase the coverage by bringing more traders into the tax net”. The existing fee rate ranged from Rs120 to Rs2,000 depending on covered area.

Meanwhile, the administrations of SITE Town and Baldia Town have sent notices to the owners of factories asking them to get their trade licences within a week of the receipt of notices.

Chairman SITE Association of Industry (SAI) Ameen Bandukda told Dawn that the association had challenged the notices as the Site area did not fall under the jurisdiction of any municipal town and factories did not get any civic amenities from them.

“The Site area falls under the jurisdiction of Sindh Industrial Trading Estate Limited and it pays requisite fee to the same,” he explained.