HYDERABAD: A surplus budget of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) for the financial year 2018-19 was presented in the budget session held in the council’s hall on Tuesday. The budget has an outlay of Rs2.61 billion and shows a surplus of Rs124,258.

The HMC anticipates an income of Rs2.53bn, including an amount of Rs1.39bn to be received as octroi share from the Sindh government and Rs360 million special grant.

It also expects receipt of Rs20.13m from the Federal Board of Revenue about which the Hyderabad mayor says that the amount was kept in Sindh Bank as HMC’s asset but the FBR withdrew it. He told the session that Rs40m would be sought from the Sindh government under the head of rain emergency and de-silting of drains.

Rs2.61bn HMC budget presented

Mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain, who chaired the budget session, in his budget speech conceded that he could not come up to the expectation of people due to insurmountable difficulties being faced by the HMC. However, he said, efforts were made to expand civic infrastructure as much as possible and control financial anomalies to a great extent.

He noted that the corporation did not even get funds to pay the salaries and pension of employees on time while there were no funds for development works.

In the next year’s budget, he said, funds under salaries and pension had been increased to Rs1.67bn.

He said that a federal package of Rs500m, announced and okayed by the outgoing government, was lying with the Sindh governor.

He said that Rs1.5m development schemes were approved for each union committee while Rs5m was earmarked for uplift works of minorities’ colonies.

Initiating a debate on the budget, Pasha Qazi of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) complained that opposition was not taken on board while preparing the budget. “Rs1.3m was spent on renovation of the mayor’s office, which otherwise did not need any such works,” he said, adding that Rs900,000 was spent on the deputy mayor’s office. He accused the mayor of toeing the line of HMC officers.

The mayor said that no such amount was spent on his office but Mr Qazi insisted that he could produce evidence in this regard. The mayor said he would get this investigated.

Mohammad Ahmed Jafri said that HMC’s Jinnah Hall badly needed uplift but it was being ignored whereas millions were being spent on repairing offices and walls.

PPP’s Sajida Baloch said that women members were considered “showpiece” in the council as their input in budget preparation was never sought.

Some members gathered in front of the mayor’s seat to record their protest over broken benches in the hall.

Malik Abdul Rasheed and Arsalan Inqalabi said that the elected house has become a joke in the last two years as benches were in bad shape.

Deputy Mayor Sohail Mashhadi intervened to pacify protesting members. Some of them walked out of the house.

Syed Umair criticised the council for presenting the budget in English and demanded that it be published in Urdu because several members could not understand English.

Several members questioned start of the debate on budget the same day arguing that it was a voluminous document which needed to be studied and examined first.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2018