Non-development expenditure up in new CDA budget

[Salman]

Non-development expenditure up in new CDA budget

* Property tax increase not to hurt small plot owners

* Rs 13.606m for lifts at Secretariat

* Rs 5.505m for CCTV system at Senate Hall

* Rs 63.358m for Parliament House security arrangements

By Ali Hassan

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Thursday announced its budget of Rs 28 billion for financial year 2012-13 (18 percent higher than the previous budget), with main focus on development of the federal capital and generation of funds through sale of plots. CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal read the budget book at Jinnah Convention Centre.

The authority generates Rs 21,423.90 million through its own resources, mainly by selling plots across the federal capital, he said. It generates Rs 4648.41 million (Rs 4.64 billion), including property tax, water charges, toll tax, municipal receipts, interest on deposits and sanitary receipts, through its revenue department.

The federal government would provide Rs 1.69 billion to the CDA under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and Rs 1.8 billion under the Maintenance Grant. The Rs 16 billion has been allocated in the budget for several developmental schemes and programmes, including Rs 452.248 million for the 3rd and 4th lane of the Kashmir Highway, Rs 13.606 million for lifts at Pak Secretariat building, Rs 5.505 million for CCTV system in the Senate Hall, parliament building, Rs 1.157 million for fire alarm system and Rs 63.358 million for security arrangements at the Parliament House.

The allocation is higher than Rs 12.11 billion that was allocated by the authority for fiscal year 2011-12. Allocation for non-development expenditure for fiscal year 2012-13 is Rs 12 billion as compared to Rs 9.76 billion for fiscal year 2011-12. The reason stated for Rs 2.24 billion more allocation under the head of non-development expenditure is recent increase in salaries and pensions announced by the federal government and overall price hike and increase in the POL prices.

The CDA, during the fiscal year 2011-12, collected Rs 10.23 billion as revenue from the self-financing sector and other receipts against the estimated receipts of Rs 18.9 billion.

While announcing the budget, Imtiaz Elahi said the federal capital has a green city image and it has been decided that construction of more mega structures “should not hurt that image of the city”. He said landscaping would be done all over the city and the middle-class sectors, i.e., G and I series will be focused for the development work.

The CDA chairman said that the authority has decided to strengthen the legal branch and hire some more lawyers, as the CDA had as many as 400 cases pending with courts due to which billion of rupees had been stuck up. Elahi said that upgrading mini markets “is the CDA’s priority and Rs 350 million have been allocated for the purpose”. The CDA chairman said that though property tax has been increased, it won’t hurt the owners of small plots.