ISLAMABAD, May 26: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will announce an approximately Rs5 billion budget for the fiscal year 2003-2004, a senior official in the authority’s finance wing told Dawn.

The budget is likely to be announced by June end. The official claimed that no new taxes would be imposed or the existing ones increased since the authority had already raised property tax by 250 per cent and fine for additional construction in the residential and commercial units by 300 per cent.

Talking about the progress of development projects approved under the CDA Annual Works Programme (AWP) for 2003, he said out of the last year’s total budget of about Rs5 billion, Rs2.5 million was allocated for the CDA establishment and the remaining Rs2.5 billion for the uplift projects.

He said only one-third of the total amount allocated for the AWP could be utilized in the last fiscal year, hence various uplift schemes could not be executed. The remaining development projects, he said, would be commissioned in the fiscal year 2003- 2004 as carried-over works. —Staff Reporter