RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has approved annual budget of Rs6.1 billion for fiscal year 2022-23 with allocation of Rs4.6 billion for development.

The budget was approved by Commissioner Noorul Amin Mengal as administrator of RMC. It is the first budget of the city after change of the local government system.

A senior RMC official told Dawn that for the last two years, the RMC did not spend a single penny on uplift projects even with Rs3.5 billion in its account.

He said there was no chance that the civic body would work on any development scheme this year too and it made no effort to make a plan in this regard in the absence of an elected person.

Commissioner approves annual budget for 2022-23

The total outlay of the budget is Rs6.1 billion; Rs4.6 billion has been allocated for development while Rs1.4 billion for non-development expenditures.

According to budget documents, Rs522.4 million has been allocated for salaries of RMC employees, Rs500 million for pension of former employees, Rs365.5 million for contingency/services and commodities and Rs45 million for miscellaneous.

The RMC allocated Rs25 million for repair and maintenance of streets and roads, Rs15 million for building repair, Rs10 million for repair of streetlights and restoration of traffic signals.

In order to generate funds, the RMC has planned to convert its old office building located on Jinnah Road into a parking plaza.

According to the budget, the RMC had eight sources of income and it would get Rs529 million from its share of the urban immovable property tax, Rs400 million from tax on transfer of immovable property, Rs325 million from its share of Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award from the Punjab government, Rs600 million from fee for change of land, Rs100 million from building plan fee, Rs253 million from rent of the RMC properties, Rs120 million from profit of bank account and Rs343 million from slaughter house, general bus stand and parking fees.

Mr Mengal said that the RMC planned to utilise the development fund on major schemes as the road and streets had already been improved.

He said the monument of Benazir Bhutto at Liaquat Bagh and restoration of Sujan Singh Haveli and food street at Bhabara Bazaar will be main projects.

“Through this, the civic body will provide better a environment for tourists and visitors,” he said, adding that more parking plazas would be constructed to solve parking problems in the downtown area and visitors will get better travelling facilities on main roads. He said civic issues would also be solved in the next fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2022