KARACHI, April 4: The city government has faced a financial loss of millions of rupees after a private firm declined to deposit Rs100 million as the highest bidding company for 63 advertisement sites, which it won in an open auction held in January.

As a result, the city government has no option except cancel the permission of 63 advertisement sites to install huge billboards and forfeit the security deposit of the company.

In January, the city government auctioned 123 advertisement sites in different city areas for Rs280 million. M/s ARY Communications won a majority of the advertisement sites by offering the highest bid. However, the company deposited only Rs8.4 million as security deposit.

District Officer Local Taxes department, Rehan Khan, said M/s ARY Communication had to pay over Rs100 million to the city government for the 63 sites but the company failed to deposit the money within the stipulated time. The city government extended the deadline thrice. Finally, the matter was brought to the knowledge of City Nazim Mustafa Kamal who directed the officials to handle the issue as per law.

The DO said the company had been blacklisted. He maintained the city government would face no financial loss due to the company’s failure, as it would allot these prime sites to other interested companies. However, sources said it would be difficult for the city government to sell these sites for installation of billboards in the current fiscal, which ends on June 30.