File photo of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: With no new taxes, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) unveiled a characteristically surplus budget for the fiscal year, 2015-2016, with an outlay of Rs33.68 billion, in a press statement released on Friday. The upcoming year’s budget is Rs0.166 billion more than the previous year.
Of the total budget, development projects have been allocated Rs14.24 billion, including Rs6.48 billion for the engineering department. Meanwhile, the establishment expenditures have been estimated at Rs14. 15 billion, contingent at Rs2.82 billion, while Rs0.43 billion have been allocated for maintenance and repairs. The district municipal corporations (DMCs) falling under the KMC will be allocated a total of Rs2 billion.
According to the press release, the KMC will carry out more than 100 developments projects with its own resources as well as the provincial and district Annual Development Programme (ADP) funds.
Some of the major projects include the construction of a commercial parking plaza at Shahabuddin Market for which Rs350m have been allocated. For the construction of Zulfiqarabad Oil tankers Parking Terminal, Rs300m have been allocated. Meanwhile, Rs269m have been set aside for the installation of a wireless video surveillance system and Rs250m for the construction of boundary walls around the city graveyards.
According to KMC administrator, Saqib Ahmed Soomro, before the city government came into being in 2001, the civic body had 11,000 employees. When the KMC was restored after the dissolution of the city government, the total number of employees had crossed 32,000. “Though the KMC has the same resources that it had back in 2001, its expenditures have increased manifold,” he reasoned.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2015.
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