CDGK approves Rs70.69bn tax-free budget

KARACHI: Administrator Karachi Fazal-ur-Rehman on Wednesday approved the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) budget for the fiscal year 2011-12 with total outlay of Rs. 70.691 billion, with the estimated surplus of Rs. 102.82 million.

It is a tax free budget as no new taxes have been imposed in it, Administrator said. The revenue receipts of CDGK budget 2011-12 stands at Rs 70,794.42million while the estimated expenditure is totaled at Rs 70,691.60 million.

A sum of Rs 26.225 billion has been allocated for Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB).Of the total 21 departments of CDGK excluding KW&SB, the major chunk of it has been allocated on education of Rs 13.034 billion, followed by Works & Services Rs11.898 billion, Health Rs5.075 billion, Annual Development Program (District) Rs3 billion, Funds for Union/town councils Rs1.946 billion and Finance and Planning Rs1.872 billion.

The estimated expenditure on other departments include; coordination, where Rs 1.5 billion is allocated, Revenue Rs1.3bn, Municipal Services Rs 1.3bn, Debt servicing, pension fund & other miscellaneous expenditure Rs1.2 bn, Community Development Rs563.65 million, Transport & Communication Rs384.3 million, Information Technology 347.6 million, Agriculture 305.8 million, Karachi Mass Transit Cell Rs228.9 million, Master Plan Rs 221.5 million, Naib Nazim & Council Secretariat Rs. 76.4 million, Law Rs 60.5 million, Nazim Secretariat Rs 37.2 million, Enterprise & Investment Promotion Rs 36.8 million and Literacy Rs13.9 million.

Briefing the media, Administrator informed that development and non development expenditure had been curtailed to 40% and 30%, respectively in the CDGK budget for the fiscal year 2011-12, adding more emphasis would be on collection of taxes this time.

“The allocation for the development sector stands at Rs 32.715 billion while the sum of Rs 37.887 billion will be spent on non-development sector in the newly approved budget” Rehman said the exercise would also be conducted every three-month to examine the progress of income and expenditures to avert lapses of funds and ensuring its proper utilization.

Administrator said the city development plans were affected during the outgoing fiscal year 2010-11 due to discrepancies in CDGK income and expenditures. He said the monthly administrative expenditure of the city government exceeded to 600.6 million from 480.7 million in the year 2010-11 owing to Sindh government directives for increasing 50% wages.

He added that share of Octroi Zila Tax (OZT) was also not increased by the Sindh Government in this connection that created further problems.

He lauded the development projects initiated by former Nazim Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal between 2005 and 2010. He said the expenses of CDGK had also been increased due to increase in population of the city, as it was the sixth largest metropolis in the world. (PPI)