Karachi’s suburbs: In Malir budget, missing zero typo nearly turns billions into millions

Despite income and turf squeeze, DMC gets surplus Rs3.5b outlay.

KARACHI: Assistant accounts officer Baboomal exhaled in exasperation, glasses perched on the tip of his nose, a sharpened pencil in his hand. "What is this," he asked no one and everyone. "Where did the extra zero go?" The money that Malir's district municipal corporation expects to earn in 2014-15 was printed as Rs357,874,600. The correct figure is: Rs3,578,704,600.

And so, senior officers Taj Baloch, Ikhlaq Ahmed and Shareef Shaikh went to work fixing 100 glossy printed budget booklets, cutting out the wrong number and writing the correct one. "Ha, ha, figure sahi karey chadeya," Baboomal told someone over the phone once the crisis was averted.

This was how DMC Malir's Rs3.5 billion budget was presented on Friday. Malir is one of six of Karachi's district municipal corporations whose main work is sanitation, maintaining roads, street lights. DMC Malir's budget is 12% smaller going forward since Landhi and Korangi are no longer part of it. It now consists of the largely rural Bin Qasim, Gadap and Malir areas. The good news is that DMC Malir will have its own website up and running in a few days. It also has plans to build a 24-hour complaint centre and be accessible to residents via SMS, the internet and landline.

The DMC's dapper administrator, Zaheer Abid Memon, ran through the surplus budget. They will be getting Rs104 million from Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (against the share of property tax), which is half of what they received last year. The Sindh government will give it Rs2.7 billion in the octroi and zilla tax but this is 14% less than what it gave it in 2013-14. And the DMC itself expects to earn Rs363 million in 2014-15 down from Rs553 million. That money comes from water charges, markets, wedding halls, permission for teletowers, property taxes, tender fees among others. (Note: the budget document doesn't say whether these are revised or actual figures).

Memon said that they would be spending one billion rupees on development including Rs270 million on ongoing schemes. That includes about Rs90 million on the water supply, Rs100 million on sewage and Rs2.3 million on public toilets. He said that the Karachi Water & Sewage Board was not discharging its responsibilities as far as Malir was concerned. This is why the DMC has, as with other years, had to spent its own money on supplying drinking water and tackling sewage.

The DMC is also raising its salaries 10%, as mandated by the government of Sindh's announcement. Employees are also getting a Hajj scheme, health insurance and financial assistance with funerals. It is also putting money into a grant for the suburban press clubs. DMC Malir plans to spend the largest chunk of its budget, 37%, on "communications". One assumes this refers to road repairs and building that will take Rs290 million. About Rs90 million will be spent on street lights. Very little, a mere Rs20 million is going to garbage collection. Parks get Rs70 million.

There were barely any questions from the media after the briefing mostly because it was so close to Friday prayers. Hours after the budget was announced, other officers and staff from the DMC sent around messages that they had boycotted the budget because they said that they had not been kept in the loop. They protested outside the office near Mashriq Centre. They said they were unhappy with Malir Municipal Commissioner Ashfaq Mallah and Administrator Memon. Traditionally one would assume, as DMC Korangi did as well on Friday, that DMC Malir would have held its press conference at its own office. Instead, it decided on the Arena, off Karsaz Road. When one officer was asked why, he said that it was easier as they'd have to get their office cleaned. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2014.