KARACHI, July 4 : The status of the record city government budget of more than Rs27 billion, passed on June 30 by the city council, has fallen in ambiguity after large scale changes made to it by the city council prior to its approval, and if proven to be a deficit budget it will be treated as un-passed.

According to section 112-8(a) of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 2001, the district governments cannot make a deficit budget. If the city council budget is proved to be a deficit one it will be treated as un-passed and referred to the province for making a new budget.

The problem arose after members of the city council nearly changed the proposed budget of the city government 2003-04 by approving about 60 cut motions and allocating funds in different heads that may exceed the amount deducted from the budget; as a result the budget may become deficit.

By Friday evening the finance department of the city government had twice calculated the total expenditure and amount deducted from various heads.

During the first counting the city government budget was in deficit by Rs.25 million, whereas after the second calculations that ended late on Friday evening the budget was surplus by about Rs.41 million.

According to a senior official of the finance department the third calculation will be held on Saturday and is expected to be finalised by Monday.

The original city government budget amounted to Rs27,582.38 million with revenue receipts of Rs27,704.13 million, showing a surplus of Rs121.75 million.

The total development expenditure for the upcoming fiscal is Rs10.136 billion, including Rs930 million of the ADP from the Sindh government.

The establishment expenditure of the city government is Rs2,644.58 million, contingent expenditure is Rs1,063.59 million and repair and maintenance Rs161.34 million.

However, the city council members slashed the contingency budget of the city government by 20 per cent. Besides, the cut motions amounting to about Rs310 million were approved and funds in other heads were also reduced.

However, Rs19.57 million and Rs2.5 million were approved for purchase of vehicles and computers respectively for the city council committees. The honorarium amount for the members was increased from Rs306 million to Rs963.9 million.

Development amount for 178 UCs of Karachi and members of the council on reserved seats for women, labour and minority councillors was increased from Rs661.5 million to Rs1254.7 million.

One member of the city council who played wizard when the budget was approved just half an hour before midnight on June 30 blamed the members of the Al-Khidmat group for changing their resolutions.

He said the changes presented by them were not properly calculated. But he expressed confidence that the budget would not be deficit.—PPI