Provincial govts should have the right to collect sales tax, says CM Murad

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said that the provincial governments were very close to consumers, therefore they should have the rights to collect sales tax on goods.

Talking to CPNE delegation led by the body’s President Zia Shahid, the chief minister said that his government was working in close coordination with the federal government to finalise the NFC award.

“The stand of my government is very clear- just we want the provincial government should have the rights to collect sales tax on goods,” he said.

Giving an example of collection of sales tax on services, the chief minister said that ever since the Sindh government has been given the collection right the provincial government has made record collection.

“Just last year we have collected Rs61 billion and this year we have set a target of Rs78 billion,” he said and recalled that the federal government used to give hardly Rs8.6 billion to the Sindh government.

Talking about the powers of the mayor, Murad Ali Shah that the mayor and other local bodies have been given full municipal functions and their funding transfer system has also been streamlined and presently, the government was giving more than Rs60 billion to local bodies.

“Actually, the local bodies people want the power they had under Musharraf arrangement,” he said and added that the Musharraf’s arrangement of local bodies powers were aimed at weakening the provincial government.

He said that the garbage lifting issues would be solved shortly. He added that the two districts of Karachi, South and East had officially requested Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority (SSWMA) to outsource the sweeping and lifting of garbage work of their areas. He said through a competitive process a Chinese firm has been given the contract of sweeping and garbage lifting from front-end to garbage transfer station (GTS) and work would be started within next 15 days. The machinery has landed at the sea port and within next one week it would be cleared by the customs.

Shah said that Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) has been included in the CPEC for which the provincial government was working hard to meet the requirement of the CPEC formalities.

“I am sure we would start work on KCR by October or November,” he said.

The CPNE members urged the chief minister to order audit of the previous local governments worked under Musharraf tenure.

The CPNE members lauded the performance, energy and dedication of the chief minister in discharging his duties. He thanked them for meeting with him and supporting him.

Those who attended the meeting include Shaheen Qureshi, Aamer Mahmood, Wamiq Zuberi, Imtiaz Alam, Dr Jabbar Khatak, Qazi asad Abid and others.