The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had been collecting the Municipal Utility Charges and Taxes (MUCT) through K-Electric by adding the amount to consumers’ monthly electricity bills.
However, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has now barred this practice while hearing a petition filed by residents of the Malir Cantonment Board. The petitioners challenged the legality of including municipal taxes in KE bills for cantonment residents.
In its ruling, the SHC declared that only cantonment boards are legally authorized to impose and recover municipal taxes within their jurisdictions. The court directed K-Electric to immediately stop collecting MUCT from consumers living in cantonment areas.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer argued that the Malir Cantonment Board was already charging conservancy taxes, while the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had additionally imposed municipal charges through electricity bills. This, he claimed, resulted in two separate bodies collecting taxes simultaneously, despite KMC having no authority to levy taxes in cantonment limits where board-imposed charges are already higher.
The counsel requested the court to restrain both KMC and K-Electric from issuing or collecting any municipal taxes from cantonment residents.
Earlier in September 2025, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab stated that the city had collected Rs200 million in municipal taxes, and Rs2 billion had been collected in the previous year. He also noted that MUCT collections were handled by a private company.
Mayor Wahab added that Jamaat-e-Islami’s Saifuddin had taken the matter to court once again, despite not objecting during the budget approval process. “You allowed illegal road cutting and installed billboards, yet the issue is being raised now,” the mayor remarked.