RAWALPINDI, Oct 27: The bickering between the PML-linked public representatives and the PML-N-supported district setup over various administrative affairs is causing revenue losses running in millions to the city district government.

The seven towns in Rawalpindi district, which are ruled by nazims associated with the PML, have tightened their grip over the financial resources and are collecting revenue against the wishes of the district administration.

In 2005, the Punjab government had asked the administrations of five big cities, including Rawalpindi, to take control of certain revenue sources from the towns in order to generate more funds and make the tax collection procedure transparent. However, the elected representatives in Rawalpindi’s towns are still reluctant to surrender the assets.

The towns refuse to hand over revenue sources like board tax fee, commercialisation fee, building fee, and general bus stand and billboard charges.

Sources told Dawn that the lingering dispute was resulting in annual losses of over Rs500 million to the Rawalpindi district government.

They said the situation would worsen if the towns failed to transfer the powers to the district setup in near future.

The commercialisation fee, which is charged for conversion of residential property into commercial one, is the biggest revenue source yielding around Rs400 million annually. However, the running tussle has alarmingly reduced the income to around Rs120 million.

Last year, the authorities collected only Rs125 million under the head of commercialisation fee against the target of Rs400 million.

Interestingly, in Rawal Town, the fee is collected both by the PML-dominated town setup as well as the district government in various parts of the Rawalpindi city.

Other income sources like building fee, sanitation, general bus stand and transport charges are still in the grip of towns and the district administration has become virtually helpless to avail them.

The Punjab government has created a special post of Executive District Officer (EDO) Municipal Services to handle the revenue sources of towns and collecting the charges. However, the officer and his staff are sitting idle as they have been warned by the Rawal Town administration against collecting fee in its jurisdiction.