HYDERABAD, June 29: The district government is facing a deficit of Rs1.15 billion keeping in view the budget of Rs3.16 billion, given by the Sindh government to the district, as Rs3.19 billion are estimated salaries of employees alone.

A district government source told this correspondent on Tuesday that all expenditures had to be incurred within available resources as mentioned in sections 112(5) and 120 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

Section 112(5) says a local government budget shall not be approved if sums required to meet estimated expenditures exceed estimated receipts and constraints specified in section 119 are not complied with whereas section 120(1) says no local government shall incur any debt.

The source said the 15 per cent raise in salaries had also to be taken into account. He pointed out that the district government's finance and planning section was not in a position to give exact budgetary allocations unless a statement was received from the district accounts office.

The source maintained that the planning section had left with only one option to curtail unnecessary expenditures of different departments. He said the section was expecting Rs150 million from the Sindh finance department in the head of savings of the district government.

He said the Sindh government had not released some funds under the non-salary head. The source said the district government was trying to meet the deficit through Rs40 million savings of last year, share of octroi and district tax of about Rs80.5 million and Rs200 million of another head.