HYDERABAD, Sept 14: The Nazim of city taluka, Hyderabad, Haji Moinuddin Shaikh, on Thursday presented a tax-free budget of Rs228,298,374 for the year 2002-2003.

He also presented the revised budget of the defunct Hyderabad municipal corporation for the year 2001-2002, which was unanimously approved by the council.

The convenor and Naib Nazim, Abdul Qadeer Naghar, presided over the session.

During the budget speech, the Nazim said the council expected an income of Rs40 million from the bus terminal at Hala Naka.

He said the council’s major share of revenue will be based on its octroi share, which amounted to Rs151,553,000. The entire amount, he added, will be earmarked for paying salaries to the employees.

He urged the government to allocate adequate funds so that the council could make timely payment of salaries to its employees.

Haji Moinuddin Shaikh said that the city council had to bear the liabilities of the defunct municipal corporation as the city taluka was its part. He said that these liabilities had been excluded from the current budget despite being shown in it. He said the government had been moved to clear these liabilities.

Giving the salient features of the budget, the city Nazim said Rs31,060,000 had been earmarked for the construction and repairs of roads, lanes, Nullahs, drains, parks, municipal buildings and quarters.

Moinuddin said out of this amount, each union council will be given Rs3,95,600 for development works in their respective areas, while Rs3,300,000 will be spent on the discretion of the city Nazim. He said out of this amount Rs700,000 will be spent on development schemes identified by women councillors and Rs2,00,000 on schemes identified by labour councillors.

In this way, Moinuddin said, 7.65 percent of the revenue will be spent on development works and 83.22 percent of the revenue will account for the salaries, allowances and other fringe benefits of the employees.

The city Nazim said that various factors, including inadequate financial resources and shortage of manpower and vehicles, had hindered the performance of the city council.

He said that there were only 885 sanitation workers, most of whom were elderly and sick, whereas the city needed to employ 1,600 workers. He said that their performance suffered because they did not receive salaries on time.