KARACHI, Oct 19: The Sindh government has agreed to withdraw the branch office fee of Rs40,000 and reduce the annual license renewal fee from Rs20,000 to Rs5000 currently being charged from private security agencies in the province.

However, priority will be given to the local people while recruiting guards.

The government has also agreed to withdraw the fee for security clearance of guards belonging to Karachi and the interior of the province being charged at Rs300 and Rs400 respectively, and lower it from Rs1800 to Rs1000 in the case of other provinces. The new rates would be applicable after the approval of the governor, official sources said.

The provincial government, through an ordinance, had made it mandatory to get the private security agencies registered with competent authority in Sindh and levied registration fee of Rs0.1 million, branch office fee other than the office in Sindh of Rs40,000 annual renewal fee Rs20,000 and the fee for security clearance of guards.

The private security agencies however had raised the issue with the federal government and, on its intervention, the interior ministry suggested to the Sindh government to revise the fees and fix the registration fee at Rs25,000, annual renewal fee at Rs.5,000 and withdraw the fee meant for branch office and clearance of security guards. The Sindh home department later submitted a summery to the governor with a proposal to re-fix the rate of registration fee at Rs70,000, branch office fee at Rs30,000, annual renewal fee at Rs10, 000 and no change in fee for the security clearance.

Since the owners of security agencies were not satisfied with the proposal, they again approached the provincial government for revision of the decision. A three-member delegation of private security agencies, led by Ikram Sehgal, last evening called on minister for finance, planing & development, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh,

According to sources, the minister stressed recruiting local people as security guards to lessen unemployment amongst the youth of the province.

The delegation informed the minister that about 20,000 people, mostly ex-service men, are employed with security agencies. The ex-service men are preferred for being well-trained and having arms licenses. The local people would need extensive training besides arms licenses.

The representatives of security agencies however agreed to initiate efforts for setting up a training centre. The minister assured them of cooperation in getting arms and clearance licenses for the youths recruited from Sindh. The progress in this respect would be reviewed after six months, sources said.—PPI