February 16, 2008	Saturday	Safar 08, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 15: The Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board are at odds with each other over the issue of water charges payment, it has been reliably learnt.

According to sources, the water board sent Rs55 million bills of water, sewerage, conservancy charges and fire tax to the mausoleum management for the period up to August 2007. The bills were issued on Nov 20 while Nov 27 was notified as the due date for payment. Both the boards locked horns over the issue when the mausoleum management took a plea that they had been given a waiver by the government.

During the course of negotiations, the water board offered to accept the payment of half of the dues (i.e. Rs27 million) initially and the payment of outstanding charges later. But the mausoleum’s management board disagreed, maintaining that the issue had been decided over a decade back and there was no question of the payment of the bill.

The sources said the outstanding bills against consumer numbers were: Rs165,182 against CNT-0000319; Rs25.542 million against CNT-0000320; Rs165,482 against CNT-0000321; and Rs29. 040 million against CNT-0000344.

Water has been charged at Rs44 per 1,000 gallons. Sewerage and conservancy charges have been fixed at 25 per cent each of water charges while fire charges have been calculated at 30 per cent of water dues.

Responding to Dawn queries, QMMB Resident Engineer Mohammad Arif said that the issue of the KWSB dues had been decided in a progress monitoring committee’s meeting on the Bagh-i-Quaid-i-Azam Project, chaired by the former Sindh Chief Secretary, Mohammad Zubair Kidwai, on August 20, 1998.

M Arif, who has been associated with the QMMB for over a decade, said that the former chief secretary had stated: “KWSB has been pleased to waive off water charges for Quaid’s Mazar.”

After the meeting, the KWSB stopped issuing regular bills, he said, adding that whenever the bills were sent it was duly reminded of the decision taken by the committee. After such a brief exercise, the issue used to rest for some time, he added.

Now all of a sudden the QMMB received bills of around Rs55 million dues issued by the KWSB for four connections although the mausoleum had only two water connections, he said. The QMMB would not pay the bills of the two connections either as it had been waived by the government, he added. The bills issued to the QMMB did not mention how many gallons of water had been supplied to the mausoleum as no meter was installed there, said the resident engineer.

In a communication to the QMMB on the subject of “outstanding dues of KWSB against the federal government departments / corporations / agencies”, KWSB Chief Revenue Officer Mahmood Qadir has referred to a federal government communication (ref number Finance Division u.o. No. F5 (14) CF 1/2005-06, dated 8-11-2007) and said that “your kind attention is invited to the letter referred above whereby a meeting was held on Nov 8, 2007, chaired by the adviser to the prime minister on finance, deciding that all federal government departments.”