K-P owes Rs193.68b to foreign creditors

US, Germany and Japan main sources of loans

PESHAWAR: Even though the provincial government owes no money to lenders in the country, it has to pay back as much as Rs193.68 billion in foreign loans.

This was disclosed in a debt bulletin published by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government. The bulletin shared details of loans taken by the province from June 30, 2018, to June 30, 2019. It showed that the K-P government had taken around Rs32.97 billion in loans.

Most of the loans arrived from the United States of America followed by Germany and then Japan.

K-P received Japanese Yen worth Rs31.36 million while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided Rs98.8 billion and the IDA Rs590 million.

Most of the loans, around 31 per cent, were obtained by K-P to fund construction of road infrastructure. The education sector received over Rs11 billion. Irrigation received Rs18 billion, environment over Rs3 billion, industry Rs26 million, agriculture Rs3 billion, rural development Rs21 billion, planning and development Rs4 billion, energy and power Rs12.89 billion, treasury Rs54.43 billion, health Rs2.7 billion.

The biggest portion of the loan obtained from ADB was utilized in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project with around Rs70 billion going to the project. The mass transit project had started in October 2017 and remains under construction.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2019.