HYDERABAD, April 18: The Sindh finance department has not yet decided how much fund it will allocate for development sectors of the three new districts carved out of Hyderabad in next year’s budget. As a result, the finance department of the Hyderabad district is preparing budgetary proposals for all four districts on the basis of population with a proposed 20 per cent increase on development side and 15 per cent rise on non-development side, district government sources told Dawn on Monday.

The sources said the budgetary proposals for the three new districts would be prepared in accordance with strength of employees of each group of offices of the district government approved by the National Reconstruction Bureau on the basis of population.

Each EDO of 12 groups of offices has been asked to prepare budgetary proposals not only for the Hyderabad district but also for Matiari, Tando Allahyar and Tando Mohammad Khan districts keeping in view requirements of salary, non-salary and development expenditures of the four districts.

In the current fiscal year, the district government had got a Rs4.02 billion budget approved from district council for the erstwhile Hyderabad district against a one-line budget of Rs3.16 billion, given by the Sindh government.

However, no one-line budget has so far been given to the district government for the next year and that is why budgetary allocations are being prepared on the basis of population of each district.

The district government in the current budget had allocated Rs537 million for development side. Non-development expenditures of the pre-division Hyderabad stood at over Rs3.04 billion, including salaries of employees of Rs2746.310 million and non-salary expenses of Rs297.749 million.

The district government had relied heavily on availability of savings of Rs310 million of previous year and it had expected to get Rs300 million from the Sindh government under the new Provincial Finance Commission award. However, these amounts could not be given as the award was not announced. Likewise, revalidation of Rs80 million of last year’s Annual Development Programme was expected but it was not done. Consequently, the district government had to shelve a Rs100 million district development programme and a Rs80 million urban development programme which were to be executed from expected funds, including revalidated amount of the ADP.

The sources said despite assurances, the Sindh finance and planning department did not release a one-line budget to the district government’s account-IV which was the right of the district government with the result that savings of the funds could not be utilized on development side.

They said only non-salary expenditures, including stationery, POL and utility, were being given to account-IV and the remaining funds were being released to the Sindh government’s account-I.

The sources said development programmes planned in the 2004-05 budget were to be executed through savings of account-IV under different heads.

They pointed out that with 20 per cent increase in the ADP, it would now be estimated at around Rs644 million which would be divided among the four districts on the basis of population.

They maintained that the Sindh government had not given any clear-cut guidelines regarding development budgets of the districts. They added that each EDO would earmark allocations for three districts keeping in view requirements of his office.