ISLAMABAD: Representatives of political parties, citizens and traders on Monday opposed the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad’s (MCI) move to make a massive increase in property taxes, and water and sanitation charges from the upcoming fiscal year.

The PML-N and the Jamaat-i-Islami expressed concerns on the first day of a two-day public hearing held at the Jinnah Convention. PML-N leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan said that in the absence of a local government, the MCI had no ‘moral ground’ to enhance taxes or impose new taxes.

In the absence of a local government administration in the federal capital since Feb 2021, the affairs of the MCI are being run by the administrator and its chief officer.

The PML-N leader also submitted his objection in writing, stating: “The house of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad is not functional and the term of the office of the mayor and chairmen of the union councils expired in February 2021, and since then there has been no fully functional chief executive of the local governments of Islamabad.”

MCI not authorised to make policy decisions, representatives argue at public hearing

The incumbent administration was not legally competent to take any sort of policy decision as the existing officers “are only competent to carry out” daily affairs of the local government, he said, adding it was not competent to levy any new taxes or even revise the existing taxes. The caretaker setup of the MCI could only take decisions on urgent matters, he added.

“...the powers [to revise taxes] rest with the mayor and the chairmen of the union councils of Islamabad. It is, therefore, requested that the proceedings being illegal, may kindly be dropped in the interest of justice,” he said. Meanwhile, JI leader Mian Aslam said that the up to 200 per cent increase in taxes was unjustified. He also boycotted the proceedings after giving his point of view.

He said that only the elected MCI in consultations with local leaders could impose new taxes. The JI leader said that in urban and rural areas, the MCI wanted to impose taxes on owners of small houses and added that his party would resist this move. He also announced a protest against the proposed hike.

During the hearing, All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajran President Ajmal Baloch said that traders were ‘major stakeholders’ in the city. He added as “representatives of 200,000 traders of Islamabad”, the body rejected these proposals. Mr Baloch said he had filed two writ petitions against the caretaker MCI’s move to auction kiosks and cricket grounds and added that both cases were decided in his favour. Naseem Ahmed Usmani, a resident of the Margalla View Housing Society, said under the said proposals, property taxes would also be imposed on houses located in housing societies.

According to the resident, the MCI had not provided any civic facilities, such as roads, water, and sanitation services in these schemes, but it still wanted to levy property tax on houses in these schemes. “This step of imposing property taxes in housing societies will put an extra financial burden on the public, not the owners of housing schemes,” he said.

MCI Chief Officer Rana Waqas Anwar defended the move of preparing proposals for imposing new taxes and revising the existing ones under sections 88 and 89 of the ICT Local Government Act 2015. He said that as per the LG law, the administrator was the competent authority under Section 99 to run the affairs of the MCI in the absence of the mayor.

He said that section 99(2) of the Local Government Act 2015 is very much clear in this regard. “...the MCI is functional through an administrator,” the CO said. He shared that previously when steps were taken to impose new taxes, the court rejected the move by stating that a public hearing was not conducted under Section 88(4) of the same act. “In furtherance of the said court order of 2020, a public hearing was conducted and the public’s feedback and suggestions along with proposed taxes will be shared with the federal government, which is the competent forum to vet or disapprove the tax proposals if not reasonable within the law,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2023