Govt soon to issue guidelines on OZT spending: Saeed Ghani

KARACHI:

The Sindh government will soon issue a set of guidelines to the union committees and union councils in the province to identify the potential areas where they could spend specified portions of their increased share of Octroi Zilla Tax (OZT) including uplift works.

Sindh Local Government Minister, Saeed Ghani, stated this while responding to different call-attention notices submitted by the concerned lawmakers during the Sindh Assembly session on Friday.

The LG minister said, the monthly OZT share being given to the municipal bodies in the province had been increased to strengthen them financially and increase their financial capacity to disburse salaries and pensions to their employees on time.

He informed the house that the monthly OZT share of an urban area union committee had been increased from Rs500,000 to Rs1.2 million while a rural union council will get Rs1 million OZT share.

He said the UCs had been asked to limit the monthly salary bill of their employees to Rs400,000 so that funds could be spared to carry out small uplift works in their respective jurisdictions.