HYDERABAD, Jan 9: The district government will present a new budget as all expenditures are being made without any legal cover for the last six months, inquiries by this correspondent showed on Thursday.

DCO Mohammad Hussain Syed confirmed that an exercise was going-on in this regard. Some Nazims, who wished to remain anonymous, said that now the jurisdiction of the district government had been seized for preparing or presenting a new budget under Section 112 the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.

They claimed that the sub-section-VII of the section 112 of the SLGO, which dealt with the approval of budget, clearly said that in case a budget was not approved by a council before the commencement of the financial year to which it related, the local body concerned shall spend money under various heads in accordance with the budgetary provisions of preceding financial year for a period not exceeding 30 days on proportional basis; provided that a local government shall not spend funds or make commitments for any expenditure, under any demand for grant or appropriation, in excess of eight per cent of the amount budgeted in the preceding year within the 30-day period.

They said in the light of this Section, the district government was competent to make expenditures but the same should not exceed last year's budgetary estimates in a particular or all heads of accounts.

The Nazims pointed out that now only the Sindh government could prepare, approve and authenticate the budget for the full year because the district government and the district council were no more competent to present or prepare the budget.

At the time of presentation of the budget, a majority of Nazims had raised the question that a deficit budget should not be presented in the council. A council member said had the finance department officials consulted the SLGO and budget rules such situation would not have arisen?.

He said after the finance department had declined to approve the deficit budget the district government should have stopped making expenditures and sought proper approval from the finance department but it was not done.

The district council had passed a total deficit outlay of Rs4524.654 million for 2003-04 on July 3 against Rs3,761.649 million budget of 2002-03. The budgetary estimates were sent to the Sindh government for approval.

There was a total deficit of Rs37.187 million with no tax imposed. The members had accused the EDO finance of keeping the council in the darkness when he informed the house that the Sindh finance department had refused to approve the budget, saying that in the light of Section 120 (1), the council could not pass a deficit budget.