FAISALABAD, July 7: The Tehsil Municipal Administration (City) has failed to start several development projects during the last decade, as a huge amount of Rs146.9 million is outstanding against private contractors and firms.

Reports said several development projects could not be started during the last decade for want of funds. The private firms and parties, which obtained contracts for the collection of fees, taxes and duties from 1994 to 2004, allegedly hoodwinked the TMA with the connivance of some 'black sheep' in the council and escaped without depositing their shares with the government exchequer.

The TMA has yet to take any concrete step to recover Rs146.9 million outstanding against the contractors. However, the amount has been earmarked in the annual developmental budget.

It is learnt that the administration could recover during the last one year only Rs36,000 out of a huge amount pending against a contractor. An amount of Rs9.3 million is yet to be paid by a contractor, who had obtained the contract for the collection of toll in 1997.

The TMA had referred the matter to the district collector for the recovery after its failure to get a penny from the contractor, but to no avail. Similarly, Rs9 million are outstanding against two private firms, which got the contracts for the collection of fee on transfer of immovable properties in 1993 and 1994.

This case also was referred to the district collector, but all efforts to recover the amount proved futile. A sum of Rs6.2 million has been declared as arrears to be paid by some contractors of the wheel tax.

The recovery of the amount has been put in cold storage. The contractors of licence fee have not paid Rs6.3 million to the administration during the last four years while Rs4.7 million are outstanding against the contractor of building fee since 1999.

Sources told this correspondent that millions of rupees were not paid by contractors of rickshaw and taxi tax, bakar mandi fee, cinema show tax, sewerage tax, advertisement tax, parking fee, slaughter house tax, loading and parking fee, teh bazari fee, fruit stall fee, and tonga stand tax.

A senior TMA official told this correspondent on the condition of anonymity that the taxation branch officials were directly responsible for huge accumulation of the arrears, as they were providing patronage to the corrupt contractors and private firms.

"The TMA functionaries, instead of collecting amounts from the defaulters, prefer to strike deals with them for their personal gains," he added. He said a majority of the contractors were still working with the TMA and getting contracts by changing their names and modus operandi despite being declared defaulters.

Some of them had succeeded in getting stay orders from different courts and were paying nominal monthly instalments to the TMA to get a legal cover for their profession.

It is pertinent to mention that the matter was raised during the last meeting of the TMA by councillor Saqib Butt. City Tehsil Nazim Mumtaz Ali Cheema assured the house that the provincial and district governments would be involved in the recovery of huge arrears, but no step had been taken so far.