KARACHI, May 20: The withholding of Octroi Zila Tax (OZT) funds by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has caused serious financial problems and halted development and non-development works in several unions councils (UC) of the city.

CDGK has withheld these amounts without giving any reason, despite the release of funds under this head by the Sindh government to CDGK to distribute it among the UCs. However, CDGK had not released the OZT funds to UCs and towns on the pretext that the Sindh government was not releasing the same to CDGK.

It was also learnt on Thursday that the Sindh Finance Department was releasing CDGK's monthly share of OZT under a certain formula recommended by the Sindh Local Government Department.

"Amounts are released to CDGK on urban octroi, rural octroi and zila tax accounts on a monthly basis," well-informed sources told PPI. This also came into knowledge of the Sindh Finance Department when it started to release the funds directly to towns and asked the Sindh Local Government Department to furnish a comprehensive report to the Finance Department regarding short or excess release of OZT funds by CDGK.

It was worth mentioning that a large number of complaints had been received by the Sindh Finance Department from towns and UCs of Karachi that they were being deprived of their due share of octroi.

Nazims of SITE and Baldia towns have criticised the CDGK for ignoring remote towns and demanded the release of octroi amounts to them. However, every tier of the government was kept in the dark by CDGK about the OZT funds, which it had been receiving regularly by the Sindh Finance Department and was not releasing to the towns and UCs.

Orangi, Baldia, Site, Bin Qasim, Gaddap, Saddar and Keamari towns have been affected adversely due to the non-release of funds with Saddar town owing a major share of this shortfall.

The situation had deteriorated to an extent that UC administrations were unable to pay salaries to their employees or other petty expenditures. Though towns had benefited from the new policy of the government to release funds directly, as they were receiving funds including octroi amounts, UCs were still facing the problem of receiving their share of octroi.

"CDGK owes millions of rupees to UCs on account of octroi, the payment of which is seen difficult by the former in the near future," source added. - PPI