Central district’s Rs9.32b surplus budget unveiled

Administrator says despite financial crunch, DMC gave employees 20 per cent raise

KARACHI:

Administrator Central District Taha Saleem presented a surplus budget of Rs9.32 billion for District Municipal Corporation (DMC) for 2022-23.

Taha Saleem read out essential points of the budget and announced that the budget revenue is estimated at Rs9.327 billion, including the Sindh government's approved OZT fund, arrears of OZT, the share of property tax, income from other government projects and the KMC and collection of municipal taxation.

District Central Municipal Commissioner Zahid Hussain, Senior Accounts Officer Habib Rajput and other officials, including press and media representatives were present at the occasion.

As per budget documents, Rs2.24 billion has been allocated for development works, including repair and maintenance of roads and buildings, ongoing click programs in the district, construction and improvement of storm drains, maintenance and reconstruction of parks and playgrounds, and new development projects.

At least Rs786 million have been allocated for matters unrelated to development like salaries, arrears of wages and pensions, plans for dealing with emergencies, sanitation arrangements in urban and commercial areas and expenditure on sanitation.

Thus, savings are estimated to be up to Rs534,917.

Taha Saleem added that the Central Municipality has been suffering from financial problems and other unfavourable conditions in recent years, due to which the financial grant sanctioned by the Sindh government was very meagre and was not received on time.

Despite this, the salaries of the local government employees increased by 20% in June, which will help reduce the financial problems caused by the current high inflation. However, the local government administration is concerned for the welfare of the employees.

To tackle this concern, a special health card is under consideration for assisting employees in health matters.