The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) is  organising an orientation programme on ‘Operation of Local Government and Budget Formulation’ for the local level representatives of Province 1 from Tuesday.

The first phase of three-day orientation programme in 14 districts of Province 1 will kick off on Tuesday in their respective district headquarters.

The orientation programme will be held in other provinces  phasewise.

The experts and senior officials from the ministry will conduct the training for the chief, deputy chief and executive head of all the local level units on operations of the local levels and formulate the budget—something which is entirely new to the local bodies.

Under a provision of the constitution, the central government has to present its budget by the last week of May which the others local and provincial governments also need to follow. The training will impart knowledge on ways to formulate budget, incorporating forecast of income and expenditure each local government need to make.

It will also entail development planning, process of budget formulation and endorsement, good governance and code of conduct of the elected local representatives.

The Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Act endorsed by Parliament in October authorises the local level bodies to use 25 percent of the royalty collected from natural resources. It also permits them to levy tax on vehicles, housing registration, rent, land revenue, entertainment, advertisement, business and hoarding boards.

They can collect revenues from tourism and natural resources, among others. Excise duty and value added tax raised in each local unit will be deposited in the federal fund, 15 percent of which will be returned to the local bodies.

Similarly, the local governments will now be responsible for paying the salaries of teachers, local officials, carrying out development works as per their planning. The expenditure will be managed through the grant from the central government and the local revenue.

Immediately after the local level elections, the ministry had organised an orientation on governance, decentralisation and resource mobilisation for the local representatives by mobilising former secretaries and experts from the fields of education, health, governance and information, communication and technology.