LAHORE, Aug 3: The Shalimar Town Council has unanimously approved a Rs108.384 million surplus budget for 2002-03 allowing 50 per cent increase in slaughterhouse and dangerous and offensive trades fee and imposition of entertainment fee on cinemas, theatres and water parks.

Presenting the budget at a council session on Saturday, town Nazim Ashiq Dayal said Rs61.3 million would be spent on the ongoing and new development works and repairs.

He said Rs28.85 million had been earmarked for new development works, Rs24 million for clearing the liabilities of ongoing works of ex-district council transferred to the town and the annual development programme schemes and Rs8.45 million for repairs and maintenance. Establishment charges were estimated at Rs20.944 million, contingencies Rs16.8 million and miscellaneous and charged expenditure Rs3.45 million.

He said Rs12.038 million had been allocated for the construction of new roads and streets whereas Rs2.95 million had been set aside for the repair of existing roads and streets. A cattle market would be established at a cost of Rs4 million and Rs2 million would be spent on women welfare schemes. New streetlights would be installed at a cost of Rs2.2 million. The town administration would acquire a new vehicle at a cost of Rs1 million and office equipment at a cost of Rs400,000. A saving of Rs5.89 million was expected at the end of the current financial year.

Giving the details of income, the Nazim said property tax collection was estimated at Rs12 million and tax on transfer of property at Rs11 million. Income from town municipal fees was estimated at Rs23.64 million and Rs2 million were expected to be raised by imposing fines on violators of municipal laws.

He said Rs21.74 million government grant was expected for setting up devolved offices. Income from the sale of assets, interest on investments, arrears, advances and deposits and grants of non-recurring receipts was estimated at Rs14.6 million.

He said the town had not been able to meet the income targets last year. Only Rs6.2 million were received on account of tax on transfer of property against a target of Rs20 million and only Rs60,000 were received from the government as share from property tax against an expected Rs8.6 million. Even this amount was adjusted against the streetlights bills. Not even a single rupee had been received against the Rs13 million share from the Bakkar Mandi fee. The town could collect only Rs1.2 million on account of the municipal licence fee due to unauthorized collections by various union councils. Transition grant of Rs4.35 million could not be transferred to the town account despite having been released by the government.

He said the total town expenditure during 2001-02 was Rs670,000 against an income of Rs28.6 million. The town saved Rs5.9 million allocated for salaries as they were paid by the city district government. A sum of Rs14.5 million allocated for funding the schemes proposed by the Citizen Community Boards was saved because the boards could not be constituted. Two million rupees allocated for women welfare schemes could not be spent either and were saved.

He said no allocation had been made for the solid waste management being transferred to the towns. No allocation had been made for the fire brigade as it was being transferred to the city district government. The number of streetlight staff would be reduced in case of paucity of funds, he concluded.