K-P to get Rs90 billion for war on terror

Since 2010-11 the province has been provided Rs455b under the head

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is expected to get Rs90 billion for war-on-terror which is one per cent of the total national resources.

It was in the year 2010 that the 7th National Finance Commission Award (NFC) was decided and since then K-P has been provided roughly Rs455 billion in total to cope with terrorism.

In the 7th NFC award, it was decided that K-P province will be given an additional one per cent of the national resources to enable it to compensate for the terrorism losses starting from the fiscal year 2010-11.

That year the province was provided Rs15.2 billion and the next year K-P received Rs18.022 billion under the head. Similarly, next fiscal year 2012-13, the amount was increased to Rs22.07 billion which went further up in 2013-14 to Rs23.82 billion.

In 2014-15, the K-P province was given Rs27.29 billion and the next year Rs30.13 billion.

In the year 2021-22, K-P was set to receive Rs57.2 billion but it was provided with Rs58.8 billion due to spike in terrorism attacks across the province.

Last year the federal government fixed the amount at Rs68.6 billion while this fiscal year the amount is estimated at Rs90.19 billion.

It may be mentioned here that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has demanded enhanced share under the National Finance Commission (NFC) on the ground that its population has increased after the merger of erstwhile Fata five years ago.

The province has demanded Rs213 billion additional funds from the Centre and sources told The Express Tribune that soon after the provincial budget, the caretaker government will requisition a meeting of the NFC to discuss the matter.

“There has been an increase in the total population after the merger and the provincial share of K-P should also be increased to 19.64 per cent with an increase of 5.1 per cent,” said an official of the finance department, adding that the province now demands 19.64 per cent share. “A case has already been prepared in this regard by the provincial finance minister,” he added.

The seventh NFC award was decided in 2010 and the K-P’s share had been fixed at 14.63 per cent taking into account the population of the province as well as other factors.

Similarly, K-P is also paid one per cent of the national resources per annum due to terrorism.

In 2018, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were merged into the K-P province. However, despite this merger, the share of financial resources allocated to the newly merged tribal districts was not provided to K-P.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2023.