Sets a target to use 52pc of revenue income as expenditure
The Dhaka South City Corporation on Thursday announced its Tk 1,876.08 budget for 2013-14 fiscal, of which about 69 per cent would come from government grants and donors.
This year budget is Tk 94.4 crore higher than that of the past fiscal ended on June 30.
The DSCC administrator, Mohammad Nazmul Islam, placed the budget at DSCC Nagar Bhaban auditorium.
He said they had set a revenue target of Tk 558.75 crore from its own resources, which was Tk 459.18 crore in the previous fiscal.
‘In the budget you have set a target to earn Tk 1,289.58 crore from the government grants, special grants and projects funded by the government and donors and private-public partnership projects. This means you are still dependent on others though you are an autonomous body,’ local government division secretary Abu Alam Mohammad Shahid Khan told the city corporation officials.
In 2013-14 fiscal budget, Tk 100 crore is expected to come from government grants and special grants and Tk 1,189.58 crore from projects funded by the government and donors and private-public partnership projects, he said.
He also pointed out that the corporation had set a target to use about 52 per cent of its revenue earning as expenditure.
‘This indicator is not good for an organisation,’ Shahid Khan said, adding, ‘you have to downsize the expenditure to 10 per cent.’
He also criticised the DSCC’s poor performance regarding collecting holding tax.
In past fiscal the corporation had set a target to collect Tk 265 crore as holding tax but it was able to collect Tk 170 crore.
‘The government thinks that it is not possible for an administrator to operate the city corporation,’ Shahid Khan said.
‘It is true that if there were elected representatives, they would deliver better services.’
The corporation expects to earn Tk 270 crore from holding taxes, Tk 100 from Bazar Salami, Tk 60 crore from estate exchange sector, Tk 40 crore from trade licences, Tk 20 crore from markets, Tk 20 crore from road excavation fees and Tk 48.75 crore from other sectors of its own resources.
Another Tk 12.75 crore is expected to come from the corporation’s other income sectors including sale of junk items and debt related services.
The DSCC has planned an expenditure target of Tk 1,861.08 crore under the new fiscal year.
The administrator also mentioned that they would have a closing balance of Tk 15 crore from the outgoing fiscal year.
In the new budget, Tk 145 crore has been allocated for salaries, wages and allowances of the city corporation staff, Tk 58.5 crore for utility, namely gas, water and electricity consumption by the corporation, Tk 35.31 for supply, Tk 11.6 crore for fees, Tk 11 crore for mosquito control programme and Tk 9 crore for maintenance and repair.
The administrator also proposed Tk 375 crore for the Palashi to Gabtoli Elevated Expressway. The project’s feasibility study is going on, he added.
‘DWASA, DESA, DPDC, BTCL, Titas Gas, different mobile operators and cable line operators use our roads,’ he said. ‘So I am proposing a certain amount of taxes from all these corporations from this fiscal.’
He also proposed the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to share 75 per cent of the revenue which the authority collects from the vehicles with the serial – Dhaka Metro.
‘I am proposing that the vehicles owners, who have the serial out of the city, use Tk 1,000 tax token,’ Nazmul Islam said.
The programme was attended, among others, by DSCC chief executive officer Mohammad Ansar Ali Khan, chief engineer Zahangir Alam, and chief accounts officer Sheikh Mohammad Omar Faruque.
-With New Age input
