ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Mohammad Ahmed Waheed on Monday urged the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) to withdraw hike in trade license fee for small businesses.

Addressing a meeting of ICCI District Municipal Administration Sub-Committee here he said due to lack of relevant laws, rents of businesses were very high in Islamabad coupled with other trade expenses as compared to other cities.

He said the trade licence fee for a certain business category was raised from Rs25,000 to Rs2.4 million per annum, and by thousand percent for others.

ICCI Senior Vice President Tahir Abbasi and Vice President Saifur Rehman Khan said as per local government act, any proposal to increase tax should be first advertised in the press and then public hearing was arranged to hear the objections of stakeholders.

However, the MCI has not followed the procedure and raised the fee unilaterally, he claimed.

They said 40 union councils had representation in the MCI out of which 10 were from urban areas and rest 30 were from rural areas.

The trade licence fee was not enforced in rural areas while the urban areas union councils opposed the hike in trade licence fee.

They claimed that the MCI’s move had created great concerns among the business community of Islamabad.

Petition seeking interpretation of MCI powers filed

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday sought comments from Local Government Commission (LGC) in another petition seeking interpretation of powers of Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI).

Chief Justice Athar Minallah conducted the hearing on a petition moved by MCI Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz.

At the outset of hearing, the counsel for MCI mayor Barrister Zafarullah pleaded that the Ministry of Climate Change had stopped the MCI from cleanliness in the city, through a letter.

He said his client had also prayed the bench to fix the powers of local body representatives in his petition.

However, the counsel for the Ministry of Climate Change informed the bench that the ministry had already withdrew its letter mentioned by the petitioner.

The LGC’s lawyer said three identical petitions were under proceeding before the IHC Justice Mohsin Akhter Kiyani and prayed the court to club the above case with these petitions as well.

The bench sought written comments from LGC till March 20, and adjourned hearing of the case.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2020