Chittagong Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin announced his first budget yesterday, two months past the scheduled deadline and heavily dependent on donations like previous years.
Development is getting the highest priority in the FY2015-16 budget for Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), as well as canal digging and repair and construction of city roads.
The budget was scheduled in June, but it was delayed as the newly elected mayor took charge of his office after a two-and-a-half-month delay, said the CCC’s Finance and Establishment Standing Committee President Md Shafiul Alam.
The mayor announced an ambitious budget of Tk1,632.7 crore, of which Tk621.8 crore will be contributed by the city corporation itself.
Of the rest of the budget, Tk872 crore will come from development donations, Tk40 lakh will come from relief funds and Tk38.7 crore will come from other sources, Nasir said during his budget speech at the Nagar Bhaban.
The major part of the CCC’s contribution is going to come from tax collection – the mayor said the city corporation hoped to collect due, current and other taxes amounting to nearly Tk481.75 crore.
Meanwhile, the expenditure for the FY2015-16 is estimated at Tk1,630.75 crore, and the mayor hopes for a surplus of around Tk2.03 crore at the end of the fiscal year.
Development sector is at the top of the expenditure list, according to the budget, with the highest amount of allocation – Tk785.1 crore.
The mayor further said Tk1.25 crore had been alloted for the welfare of people with physical disabilities and Tk1 crore to eradicate drug addiction and smoking.
“My colleagues and I have already adopted a number measures for this city’s development. To make Chittagong an economically prosperous, livable and peaceful city, many development activities are in the offing.” Nasir said.
He further said he would first work on ensuring Chittagong is a clean city, before starting work to make it a green city.
In the last fiscal year, the proposed budget was Tk1,195.91 crore, which was then revised to Tk436.14 crore, the mayor said.
It had Tk139.54 crore allocated for development work, including construction and renovation of city roads and educational institutions.
However, only 36.5% of the budget was implemented in FY2014-15, while in FY2013-14 it was 45%
Nasir said budget implementation depended on the leadership trend in the city corporation. But he was confident to carry out his plan for the port city’s development.
Terming water stagnation the prime problem in the port city, he said the drainage system will be improved in his tenure.
“The city corporation is determined to build the city as the perfect commercial hub as well as a livable place, and for that all its employees have to perform their duties properly. The CCC is working to expand its income in order to reduce dependency on donation and conduct development work,” the mayor said.
