Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani has assured that the forthcoming provincial budget for 2024-25 will prioritize the timely disbursal of salaries and pensions to serving and retired employees of municipal agencies across the province. This commitment was made during a meeting chaired by Ghani at the office of Additional Chief Secretary Local Government, Syed Khalid Hyder Shah.
The minister also announced plans to increase the Octroi Zila Tax (OZT) share for union councils and town committees, acknowledging the rising recurring expenses of these municipal agencies. This move aims to support the financial sustainability of local government bodies, ensuring the smooth delivery of public services. 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.
