Govt releases Rs121b for ex-FATA
The federal government has issued the entire amount of over Rs121 billion allocated for the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) in the fiscal year 2020-21 under the 10th National Finance Commission (NFC) award.
The Finance Division said 3% of the award was allocated to the K-P’s tribal districts which were collectively called the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) till May 2018. It clarified that it has no role in the NFC related decisions.
According to documents available with The Express Tribune, Rs145.6 billion were allocated for the tribal districts in 2019-20 and the Finance Division issued Rs97.60 billion.
It said Rs121.1 were allocated for the districts in 2020-21 while in the current year, Rs129.7 have been allocated for the former Fata. It said in the fiscal year 2019-20, Rs56.1 billion were allocated for the district under the current budget. Rs50.4 billion of that allocation has been released.
In 2020-21, Rs56 billion were earmarked for the districts in the current budget and the entire amount has been released. This year, Rs60 billion have been allocated for the area in the current budget.
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Under the 10th NFC award, Rs72.5 billion were allocated as development budget for the areas in the fiscal year 2019-2020. The Finance Division has released Rs37.2 billion of the allocation.
For the year 2020-21, Rs48.1 billion were allocated for the areas as development budget and the Finance Division has released the entire amount. Rs52.7 billion have been allocated for the former Fata under the development budget for this year.
Under the 10th NFC Award, Rs17 billion were allocated for the internally displaced people (IDPs) in tribal districts in the year 2019-20. The Finance Division has so far released Rs10 billion under that head. Rs17 billion were earmarked for the IDPs in the 2020-21 and the entire amount has been released.
The same amount, Rs17 billion, is also allocated for IDPs in former Fata in the current year.