RAWALPINDI: Before the local government elections scheduled to be held in Rawalpindi on December 5, the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) on Monday agreed to transfer its main source of revenue collection — billboards, sky signs and other outdoor advertisements — to the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA).

The CDGR had been reluctant to transfer their revenue source even though the Parks and Horticulture Authority Act 2012 empowered the PHA to take it over.

In 2014, the PHA wrote letters to the city government and the matter was also brought to the notice of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

The chief minister formed a steering committee under the chairmanship of PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi to resolve the issue.

The committee on Monday held a meeting which was presided over by Mr Abbasi and attended by Commissioner Zahid Saeed, DCO Sajid Zafar Dall, PHA director general Dr Malik Abid Mehmood and other officials.

During the meeting, the ruling party politicians managed to bring the revenue source under the PHA despite an opposition from the bureaucracy.

Mr Abbasi later told Dawn that the CDGR would issue a notification to transfer the revenue source to the PHA before December 5.

He said the PHA had no direct source of income for the beautification and improvement of parks.

However, he made it clear that the PHA would be generating revenues through this source only in the city areas while in the rest of the district the DCO office would be handling it.

He said the meeting also discussed the beautification work along the metro bus elevated track. “The provincial government did not allow any sky signs and billboard along the route,” he said.

The PHA was formed in 2011 and on July 8, 2014, after the passage of an amendment, the provincial government through a notification turned it into an authority and asked the district administration to transfer the source of revenue collection to it.

The city government generated more than Rs200 million annually from this source of income and was reluctant to transfer it to the PHA.

“The provincial government provided Rs10.036 billion for the salaries of the 30,822 government employees working with the CDGR and other expenditures,” said a senior officer of the city government said.

He said the CDGR managed to earn Rs166 million against the target of Rs200 during the fiscal year 2014-15.

However, Mr Abbasi claimed that through this source of income the PHA would be able to earn Rs400 million annually.

“The amount will be enough to meet the establishment expenditures of the authority as well as for the development of 40 parks and greenbelts in the city,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2015