The upcoming Sindh government budget for the new financial year 2024–25 will have special fiscal provisions to ensure timely disbursal of salaries and pensions to the serving and retired employees of municipal agencies across the province.
Sindh Local Government Minister, Saeed Ghani, stated this on Friday while chairing a meeting held at the office of Additional Chief Secretary, Local Government, Syed Khalid Hyder Shah.
The Local Government Minister said the OZT (Octroi Zila Tax) share of the union councils and town committees in the province would also be increased in relation to the rise in recurring expenses of these municipal agencies.
He asked all the regional directors of the Sindh Local Government Department to compile at the earliest and send to the provincial authorities the lists of the serving and retired employees of the union councils and town committees drawing salaries and pensions in their respective jurisdictions. The same data will be used to make provisions in the next provincial government budget for the protection of the salaries and pensions of the municipal staffers in Sindh.
The regional directors who attended the meeting briefed Ghani on the OZT share given to the union committees and town committees and the recurring expenses of these agencies to pay salaries and pensions to their employees.
The Local Government Minister said the provincial government should get updated data about the number of serving and retired municipal employees and details of the complete expenditures of the union committees and town committees. He said the earliest availability of such data would ensure that the upcoming provincial budget had ample fiscal provisions for paying salaries and pensions of the municipal staffers and disbursing an increased OZT share of the union committees and town committees.
He said the Sindh government had the utmost resolve to timely pay salaries to the bona fide serving and retired staffers of the municipal agencies who had duly performed their duties. He said that a comprehensive report in this regard would be presented to the Sindh Chief Minister in the next 24 hours.
Ghani said the Sindh government had been doing its best to ensure that the municipal agencies in the province should attain the stage of financial self-reliance at the earliest, as these bodies shouldn’t require recurring government grants to meet their expenses.
He mentioned that the election manifesto of the Pakistan Peoples Party stood for devolution of powers to the grass-roots level and empowering the municipal agencies. He said the Sindh government of the PPP had been making all-out efforts to achieve this cause.
The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Syed Khalid Hyder Shah, Finance Secretary, Special Secretary Ayesha Mir, Regional Directors, and other relevant officials.