K-P asks Centre to clear billions in arrears

Caretaker CM writes letter to PM on financial problems of the province

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan took up the province’s financial problems issues with the federal government, requesting the Centre to clear its billions of rupees dues, sources said on Monday.

Chief Minister Khan sent an official letter to the prime minister, seeking federal government’s special support to help the province reduce its financial difficulties, according the sources. It had been stated in the letter, the sources said, the federation had agreed to provide funds for the development and non-development budgets of the merged districts of former Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

In this regard, the letter said, the Centre owed Rs144 billion to the province since fiscal year 2019. Besides, Rs469 billion was still outstanding under the head of the Accelerated Development Programme (AIP) of the merged districts, it added.

Furthermore, the letter reminded the Centre about Rs25 billion in terms of federal tax assessment; another Rs50 billion in the form of net profits of hydel power, and Rs2.5 billion against the province’s share of oil and gas royalty. The caretaker chief minister stated that Rs935 million was required for the timely construction of four under-construction dams under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the province.

The chief minister requested the federal government to provide Rs10 billion for the relief and rehabilitation of flood-affected people; and restore 100 mmcf of gas allocated for power generation.

The chief minister also requested the prime minister to present the issues of payment of net profit of electricity to the province as per the Qazi Committee formula in the next meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Earlier, to put an end to the financial crunch faced by the province, the K-P finance department had presented various recommendations to be taken up with the federal government which include, but not limited to; an immediate revision of the share of K-P province in the 7th NFC Award, in the context of the merger of the erstwhile FATA with the province by adding the population of 2017 census to the 7th NFC formula, strict implementation of Article 151 of the constitution by all the federating units so that no unit should take any arbitrary legislative or executive action restricting trade and interprovincial movement of goods especially wheat and immediate rehabilitation of CRBC.

“There would be no compromise on the legitimate rights of the province and every effort would be made to take up the issue with the federal government in order to solve these issues on permanent basis,” the chief minister observed.