DERA GHAZI KHAN, Jan 26: A financial scandal at the tehsil municipal administration was detected when the district Naib Nazim raided the contractor's camp at the tehsil offices on the complaints against him of charging illegal district council complex tax.

The contractor had allegedly been charging illegal tax along with the property tax for which he had been awarded a legal contract by the tehsil government.

Naib Nazim Javed Iqbal Qaisrani has appointed EDO (revenue) to probe the matter of tax collection, which had been going on for the last two and-a-half years.

Information gleaned by this correspondent revealed that the Naib Nazim had raided the camp for the collection of property tax by the contractor at tehsil office premises on the written complaints of Haji Karim and Hakim Ratta of Nawan and Bakhar Wah union councils, respectively, that the contractor was charging illegal tax, besides the one for which he had been authorized.

During a raid, the Naib Nazim obtained photocopies of all the receipts and relevant record for the tax collection. Talking to Dawn on Monday, he said the contractor was charging illegal district council complex tax, which was earlier collected by the defunct district council for the construction of the complex. However after the devolution plan, he said, the tax was withdrawn by the new council.

The former set-up had collected Rs17.5 million for the complex while the amount was shifted to development fund of new district council, but the complex could not be constructed.

It is pertinent to mention that this illegal practice has been going on with the alleged support of the tehsil municipal administration since the launch of the devolution plan.

A group of contractors, headed by Haji Bashir, had always got a contract since the new set-up was launched. The others in the group are Sheikh Faiz, Ghulam Rasool Aliani, Sadeeq Shah, Mian Javed Iqbal, Mama Haju, Sheikh Kaku and Ghulam Shabbir.

When contacted, the district revenue officer said the district complex tax was not mentioned in the contract awarded by the tehsil administration and the charged amount was not deposited under separate head in its accounts.

Tehsil Naib Nazim Hafiz Khalid Rauf said they held a meeting in the past to discuss the matter and warned the contractor against collecting any tax other than the one for which he was authorized.

Sheikh Faiz, who is a partner of contractor Haji Bashir, told the Naib Nazim during his visit that they had given at least Rs2 million to grease the palms of Tehsil Nazim Asim Zubair Khosa to get the contract. Although two district coordination officers have been changed ever since the devolution plan, none of them or District Nazim Jamal Leghari had taken notice of illegal practice.

Meanwhile, Anjuman-i-Patwarian President Rana Sajjad said the Anjuman had informed the district revenue officer in October 2003 about the situation, but the matter went unnoticed.

On Dec 5, 2003, the Anjuman adopted a resolution at a meeting against this illegal practice of the contractor, but all efforts proved futile, he added.