Sukkur’s municipality staff on the brink of starvation
Like Karachi, the SMC is fighting for more funds.
SUKKUR:
Financial troubles have also hit Sukkur’s metropolitan corporation whose staff has been protesting over delayed salaries for five months. They say their families are on the brink of starvation.
Here too is the same complaint heard in Karachi: the municipality is not receiving its share of an Octroi and Zila Tax (OZT) that is levied on freight that passes through municipal limits. The Sukkur Metropolitan Corporation should be getting Rs17.5 million a month. But Sukkur Administrator Waqar Soomro says they receive only Rs113,000.
Sukkur’s municipality has more than 600 regular employees and more than 800 pensioners. “How is it possible for us to pay them with Rs113,000?” he asked.
Sukkur is generally a poor municipality. Its sources of income, aside from the OZT, are rents on municipal properties, cabins, cattle markets, donkey carts, and hand burrows. “But this comes to not more than Rs2.5 million,” said administrator Soomro. “We need Rs16.5 million a month.”
The SMC argues that the municipality’s financial position has weakened ever since 2011 when the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) took over sanitation, drainage and the water supply. The NSUSC was set up with a loan from the Asian Development Bank as part of the Sindh Cities Improvement Investment Program. It went on to lay a claim to a large share of the OZT tax that the city used to get.
So, Sukkur’s actual OZT share comes to Rs20.9 million but the government of Sindh deducts 30%, leaving them with a little more than Rs14 million and more than Rs10 million of that goes to the NSUSC.
For its part, however, NSUSC says it deserves the money because it is doing the bulk of the work. Abid Hussaini, the director of operations at NSUSC, told The Express Tribune that they provide sanitation, drainage and water supplies to Sukkur, Rohri, Khairpur, Shikarpur and Larkana. They need Rs35 million every month to pay staff and even they are always short of funds. They receive more than Rs16 million to pay salaries for staff in Sukkur.
“Even though the Sindh government doesn’t pay us what we need, we still pay our staff in time.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2012.
Financial troubles have also hit Sukkur’s metropolitan corporation whose staff has been protesting over delayed salaries for five months. They say their families are on the brink of starvation.
Here too is the same complaint heard in Karachi: the municipality is not receiving its share of an Octroi and Zila Tax (OZT) that is levied on freight that passes through municipal limits. The Sukkur Metropolitan Corporation should be getting Rs17.5 million a month. But Sukkur Administrator Waqar Soomro says they receive only Rs113,000.
Sukkur’s municipality has more than 600 regular employees and more than 800 pensioners. “How is it possible for us to pay them with Rs113,000?” he asked.
Sukkur is generally a poor municipality. Its sources of income, aside from the OZT, are rents on municipal properties, cabins, cattle markets, donkey carts, and hand burrows. “But this comes to not more than Rs2.5 million,” said administrator Soomro. “We need Rs16.5 million a month.”
The SMC argues that the municipality’s financial position has weakened ever since 2011 when the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) took over sanitation, drainage and the water supply. The NSUSC was set up with a loan from the Asian Development Bank as part of the Sindh Cities Improvement Investment Program. It went on to lay a claim to a large share of the OZT tax that the city used to get.
So, Sukkur’s actual OZT share comes to Rs20.9 million but the government of Sindh deducts 30%, leaving them with a little more than Rs14 million and more than Rs10 million of that goes to the NSUSC.
For its part, however, NSUSC says it deserves the money because it is doing the bulk of the work. Abid Hussaini, the director of operations at NSUSC, told The Express Tribune that they provide sanitation, drainage and water supplies to Sukkur, Rohri, Khairpur, Shikarpur and Larkana. They need Rs35 million every month to pay staff and even they are always short of funds. They receive more than Rs16 million to pay salaries for staff in Sukkur.
“Even though the Sindh government doesn’t pay us what we need, we still pay our staff in time.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2012.