KARACHI, Jan 12: City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has said that the Karachi City Government needs about 15 billion rupees to meet its development expenditure whereas its present income is only Rs5 billion.

Speaking at a reception hosted by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Naimatullah Khan, said the entire workforce of the city government is 135,000, whereas it will further increase by 185,000 after the merger of the KWSB and Karachi police with the City Government by June 2002.

He said being an elected representative, he considers himself a spokesman of the citizens and was not in favour of any new tax. However, he added generation of new resources was necessary for carrying out development works in Karachi.

He said Karachi had been suffering owing to resource constraints, which have left the local government in debts.

He said when octroi was introduced, sea-cess was suspended, while after the abolishment of octroi, sea-cess was not revived. It should be revived, he said, adding the population and area of Mumbai is nearly same as that of Karachi but the annual income of its local government is about Rs135 billion.

Karachi Nazim acknowledged the gravity of problems in Karachi, including the conditions of roads, lifting and proper disposal of garbage, inflow and out-flow of water. Though the resources are shrinking, the population of Karachi is increasing at an alarming rate, he said.

Nevertheless, he appealed to the traders and businessmen of Karachi who have contributed significantly for the development of the country to come forward and contribute generously for the improvement of Karachi’s infrastructure.—PPI