Money matters: Sialkot, Daska tehsils get biggest-ever development budgets

Rs560m allocated for uplift spending in Sialkot, Rs184m in Daska.

SIALKOT:

Sialkot and Daska tehsil municipal administrations (TMA) on Thursday unanimously approved Rs 1.3 billion and Rs204.5 million tax-free budgets for the upcoming year.

Sialkot TMA administrator Pervaiz Iqbal Butt said the budget contained no new tax. He said the ratio of existing taxes has been kept unchanged.

He said that Rs560 million were allocated for the uplift and beautification of the Sialkot city. He said this year the TMA expected to earn Rs100 million on top of the last year’s income.

During the fiscal year 2010-11, he said, the TMA had completed several development and public-welfare schemes at a cost of Rs280 million.

He said the development budget for the upcoming year would be the biggest ever for the Sialkot tehsil.

In Daska, Rs184.08 million of the Rs204.05 million budget were allocated for development schemes in the tehsil. Daska assistant commissioner/ TMA administrator Khalid Iqbal announced this at a press conference on Thursday.

TMO Tahir Nadeem Sandhu, Tehsil Officer (Finance) Fiaz Ahmed Bhali and TMA senior official Muhammad Farooq were also present on the occasion.

AC Iqbal said the city’s income in the upcoming year would be up to Rs200.04 million. He said work on construction of a recreational park in Daska would also start this year. He said the TMA had decided to gradually establish recreational facilities in the tehsil. He added there no park or playground had been established in Daska city since the independence of Pakistan. He said Daska residents would no longer have to head towards Sialkot, Gujranwala, Lahore and Islamabad for vacations.

He said a municipal library would also be set up at Daska. He said construction of the library building was already underway.

He said facilities at the general bus stand would also be improved to provide better transportation facilities to people this year.

He said Rs10 million would be spent on purchasing machinery for sanitation.

He said the TMA would earn Rs11 million from property tax, Rs58 million from property transfers, Rs5.05 million from map commercialization fees, Rs2 million from license fees, Rs5.01 million from Lorry Adda parking fees, Rs2 million from advertisement fees, Rs3.4 million from water fees.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2011.