Says mayor, discloses budget for Dhaka
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) yesterday announced a Tk 2715 crore budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, increasing allocations for maintenance and development of traffic infrastructure by 11.27 percent.
Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka unveiled the budget at Mahanagar Natya Mancha with no raise in holding tax.
The budget has allocations of Tk 3.55 crore to complete the construction work of a road from Grameen Bank Bhaban to Agargaon, Tk 25 crore to build another road from Beribadh (flood protection embankment) to Mohammadpur Bus Stand and Tk 10 crore to construct a multi-storey car parking at Karwan Bazar.
The mayor announced to construct a modern general cardiac hospital at the site of Mahanagar General Hospital and three pathological laboratories elsewhere in the city to ensure the poor get access to healthcare.
The DCC will also build three new graveyards. Two hundred crore taka has been allocated for one near Rayer Bazar killing ground and Tk 100 crore for the two others at Mirpur and Aftab Nagar.
An amount Tk 6.87 crore has been approved for the construction of a multi-storey ladies hostel.
The DCC will speed up holding tax collection and make the tax payment process easier, noted Khoka. This tax, the single largest source of DCC’s total revenue, is earned from land and building owners in the capital.
The corporation has a target to earn Tk 420 crore from holding tax. It realised Tk 280 crore in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, though the target was set at Tk 325 crore.
The budget has Tk 310 crore for maintenance and development of roads and traffic infrastructure, including Tk 250 crore for maintenance of roads, footpaths and surface drains.
The DCC has set a target to earn Tk 856.25 core in revenue in the current fiscal year. It earned Tk 586.95 crore in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
It will depend mainly on funds from the government and donor agencies for its development programmes.
According to the budget, Tk 100 crore will come from the government’s block allocation, Tk 100 crore from special allocation and Tk 8.50 crore from other sources.
The mayor said they have already digitised the tax collection process in zones 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and the rest of the four zones will have digital process soon.
He demanded the government form an independent Nadi Rokkhya Kartripakkha (river protection authority) to give the responsibility of saving the rivers to a single organisation.
Khoka admitted to giving permission to contractors for digging roads in the rainy season and vowed not to repeat this in future.
-With The Daily Star input
