KARACHI: Over a dozen government departments, civic entities, and commercial banks located at the Civic Centre owe millions to the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) for electricity, water supply, and other services.
In a recent development, KDA on Thursday morning disconnected water supply connections to the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) over non-payment of dues and services tax, informed Zahid Hussain, the executive engineer of the KDA building.
The disconnection of water supply has affected five floors of the building and other offices also employing around 3,000 workers and hundreds of visitors to the premises daily.
The SBCA owes outstanding dues of approximately Rs 350,000 to KDA as well as millions of rupees in other charges for services and taxes.
However, after fruitful negotiations between the officials of two civic entities, the water supply was restored in the evening on condition that all dues would be paid within three days, according to Hussain.
The general manager of K-Electric’s Estate Department has informed that earlier this week the water supply to K-Electric offices had also been stopped by the KDA over non-payment of outstanding dues.
Later after an assurance that the dues would be paid by the KE; KDA restored the water supply to the power utility. Meanwhile, a KE official, Manzoor, said that KDA’s Civic Centre building also owes outstanding dues of Rs350 million to the power utility in electricity bills.
While on the other hand, KDA officials said that K-E had defaulted on rent, water charges, and other services.
Officials of the Excise and Taxation Department at the Civic Centre said that the department would soon pay the KDA dues to avoid disconnection of water supply.
Offices of the provincial health and education departments located on the 5th and 6th floors have also assured KDA of early payment of dues.
The health department owes Rs52.90 million in rent and Rs23.20 million in water and electricity dues to KDA.
