Tk 2171.34 crore DCC budget announced; no fresh tax, holding tax; 80 % of total budget for development

By AKM Moinuddin

Dhaka, Jul 8 (UNB) – Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka on Thursday unveiled a Tk 2171.34 crore budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal without raising holding taxes or imposing any new taxes on the city dwellers.
Announcing his ninth budget at the crowded auditorium of city’s Mohanagar Natya Manch, the Mayor said that the DCC is concentrating on strengthening the tax collection process instead of increasing tax rate.
The Corporation allocated Tk 1735.49 crore, which is nearly 80 percent of the total budget, for the development of Dhaka metropolitan city.
The DCC Mayor gave priority to maintenance and development of roads and traffic infrastructure in the development budget and assured to increase civic facilities for the city dwellers.
Tk 279.50 crore has been allocated for the maintenance and development of roads and traffic infrastructure for the current fiscal, which was Tk 225 crore in the previous fiscal (2009-10).
Meanwhile, an allocation of Tk 18 crore has been kept for mosquito control activities and purchasing equipments. The amount was Tk 16 crore in the previous year.
The new budget reduced allocation against purchase of bulldozers and dump trucks, development of graveyards and crematoriums. It, however, kept allocation for citizens' recreational facilities and development of parks and children's parks almost unchanged in the current fiscal.
The DCC has set its own revenue collection target of Tk 704.35 crore for the fiscal 2010-11, which is slightly higher than the previous fiscal.
Though the corporation set a revenue collection target of Tk 603.80 crore in the last fiscal, it could collect only Tk 493.45 crore.
Mayor Khoka in his budget speech said the corporation is expecting to get Tk 100 crore as block allocation and Tk 50 crore as special allocation from the government, and Tk 7.05 crore from other sources.
Besides, the corporation has set an ambitious target of Tk 1,254.49 crore as income from government and foreign financed projects as well as public private partnership (PPP) projects though it received Tk 297.18 crore from this sector against a target of Tk 540.78 in the previous fiscal.
The corporation set a total expenditure target (revenue, development and others) of Tk 2,116.34 crore for the current fiscal compared to Tk 1,351.58 crore in the last fiscal. However, the revised budget of the fiscal 2009-2010 showed the expenditure as Tk 915.56 crore.
Of the total expenditure target, Tk 371.85 crore for revenue expenses, Tk 1735.49 crore as development expenditure and Tk 9 crore for others.
The highest Tk 188 crore has been allocated against the salary and allowances of corporation officials under revenue expenditure.
Mayor Khoka in his budget speech, however, said that the Corporation’s budget size should be Tk 10,000 crore as the 10 percent of the country’s population lives in the Dhaka City.
He urged the government to increase government allocation for the corporation to Tk 100 crore, which was Tk 26.83 crore in the last fiscal (2009-10).
“DCC’s yearly operational expenditure stood at Tk 372 crore while its revenue income was only Tk 704 crore. Naturally, it is not possible to see desired development of the city dwellers with the little surplus amount,” the Mayor said.
Earlier, the general meeting of the ward councilors approved the budget finalized by corporation’s sub-committee on finance.
END/UNB/AMK/