RCB approves Rs3.75b budget for next fiscal

No new taxes to be imposed but officials told to meet their revenue targets

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board on Sunday approved a Rs3.75 billion budget for the fiscal year of 2019-20. The new budget does not propose to impose any fresh taxes on the resident and business owners of the cantonment while the non-development budget has also been trimmed.

The draft budget document was approved in a meeting of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) headed by its President Shehzad Tanvir. RCB Vice President Malik Munir, Executive Officer Sibtain Raza and other senior officials also participated in the meeting.

As per the draft budget documents, health, education and water supply sectors have been given a subsidy of around Rs730 million in the budget.

A substantial amount has also been allocated for procuring and maintaining compactors, tractors, dumpers, water boring machines to improve the overall cleanliness and water supply condition within the cantonment.

RCB officials were directed to ensure that they meet the revenue targets through different means, including taxes and fees. For this purpose, a new block has been made part of the development scheme under which all revenue recoveries and departments will operate.

The approved budget will now be sent to the Military Land and Cantonment (MLC) Regional Director Dr Saima Shah for the final approval.

RDC surplus budget

Meanwhile, the Rawalpindi District Council (RDC) has prepared a surplus budget of over Rs1.5 billion for the fiscal year 2019-20.

Around a billion rupees have been earmarked for launching development schemes apart from funds from local and national lawmakers.

Some 474 development schemes have been listed for the Rawalpindi district. These are expected to be funded by the Punjab government through a supplementary grant of Rs1.5 billion.

Further, around half a billion rupees have been allocated to pay the salaries of staff. The council has set an aim to generate revenues of around Rs1.75 billion from its own resources such as taxes and fees.

The district council is expecting a record revenue inflow this year because it increased the professional tax along with the imposition of a new tax on extraction of underground water.

Owing to the dissolution of the municipal bodies following the promulgation of the new Punjab local government law, no development schemes from the Union Council (UCs) chairmen were presented — hence there will be no local representation in the next fiscal budget of the city.

The budget document will now be sent to the Deputy Commissioner for approval.

RDA drops 16 roads revamp projects from next fiscal

Owing to limited funds and time, the premier development authority of Rawalpindi has decided to only prioritise certain projects while dropping as many as 16 other development projects worth billions for the city.

As per the proposed annual development programme drafted by the Planning and Development (P&D) Department of the Rawalpindi Development Authority, it has been decided to drop schemes such as remodelling of the Ammar Shaheed Chowk, Liaquat Bagh-Murir Chowk Signal Free project and others in the fiscal year 2019-2020.

The RDA had previously planned to spent Rs1.96 billion on re-modelling the Double Road and IJ Principal Road junction, Rs754 million on re-modeling the Ammar Shaheed Chowk, Rs2.712 billion on the Liaquat Bagh-Murir Chowk Underpass, Rs1.025 billion on the Dhoke Hassu Road, Rs560 million on the Dhok Mangtal Road, Rs110 million on building three pedestrian bridges along Airport Road, Rs769 million on Lehtrar Road, and a further Rs190 million on improving various roads and other projects in areas within the jurisdiction of RDA.

Instead, the RDA — being an executive agency — will instead turn its focus solely towards the Rs53 billion Ring Road Project and the Rs79.517 billion worth Leh Expressway project in the new fiscal year. This despite declarations from the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government that it was against concentrating vast sums of money towards marquee development projects.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2019.