Buzdar directs to ensure financial discipline, curtail expenditures

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Witnesses LDA-BoP pact signing ceremony to construct 4,000 apartments
TLTP
LAHORE
Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has directed for taking every possible step to ensure financial discipline and adopting out-of-box solutions to curtail recurring expenditures.
The chief minister said this while chairing a meeting on Wednesday to review progress on the development projects in the province.
The meeting was informed that tax collection ratio has increased up to 7 percent as compared to the previous year as taxes worth Rs1,047 billion were collected till January 2021 and Rs191 billion development funds were also issued.
The chief minister directed to complete the ongoing schemes according to their stipulated period and asked the administrative secretaries to personally review progress on development schemes. Timely completion saves resources and facilitates the citizens, he maintained and made it clear that any delay will not be tolerated.
The chief minister emphasised that an effective monitoring system is imperative for timely utilisation of funds, adding that the annual development programme (ADP) targets must be achieved at every cost. “I will soon visit the P&D department to review progress made on the ADP,” he said. Similarly, more and more funds should be allocated for public welfare schemes, he added.
Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, chief secretary, chairman planning & development and others attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, Sardar Usman Buzdar chaired the Rs10 billion agreement signing ceremony between Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Bank of Punjab at his office on Wednesday.
DG LDA Ahmed Aziz Tarar and BoP Chairman Zafar Masood signed the agreement for constructing 4,000 apartments for LDA City Naya Pakistan Apartments over an area of 800 kanals of land. The BoP will provide resources for the project.
According to the agreement, the LDA will construct and allot apartments through balloting and will also be responsible for the maintenance of building infrastructure. The BoP will receive applications, issue letters of comfort to expected allottees along-with the provision of soft loans to successful applicants under Islamic mortgage financing. The project amount will be ring-fenced.
Addressing the ceremony, the chief minister said the PM’s vision of providing a roof to the shelter-less has been materialised by the Punjab government as banks and the public sector have joined hands to provide residential facilities to the common man. This historic agreement paves the way for a new culture to help the needy through mortgage financing, he continued.
It is satisfying that the LDA has planned to construct 35,024 apartments over an area of 8500 kanals in three years at Mouza Halloke adjoining Ring Road, he said.
Meanwhile, the chief minister disclosed that PC-1 of Rs20 billion has been approved for the provision of necessary infrastructure including construction of roads, sewerage, the supply of water and electricity etc. Similarly, the CM added that another PC-1 of Rs10 billion has also been approved to construct 4000 apartments in the first phase.
The apartment’s booking will be made through a 10 percent down payment and the rest of the payment will be made in instalments, he added. An apartment would approximately cost Rs2.7 million, the CM continued. Initially, the CM disclosed that the apartment cost was estimated at around Rs4.5 million but was decreased to facilitate the low-income households.