Asks for release of longstanding dues under net hydel profit
Tariq Saeed Peshawar
The caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has once again asked the Federal government to release its due share with particular reference to payment of long standing dues under Net Hydel Profit as per the AGN Qazi formula.
Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan has written a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, seeking federal government’s support to resolve financial instability in the province.
A handout of provincial government issued on Tuesday said the caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan has in writing taken up the financial issues related to federation with the incumbent federal government.
The caretaker Chief Minister has sent a formal letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan to this effect in which he has requested for special support in order to reduce the financial difficulties of the province.
It was stated in the letter to the Prime Minister that the federal government had agreed to fund current and development budget of the merged areas. However, there has been a gap in the transfers to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ever since the merger, for previous years as well as the ongoing financial year.
Cumulatively the funding gap against federal budgetary committed allocation for NMDs for both current and development budget for the years 2019-20 to 2022-23 has reached an amount to Rs. 144.4 billion. Similarly, only Rs. 75.5 billion has been received in the past four years for Accelerated Implementation Plan of NMDs against the total committed amount of Rs. 400 billion which results in the funding gap exceeding Rs. 469 billion whereas the funding shortfall in federal tax assignment is amount to Rs. 25 billion. Besides Rs. 49.5 billion in terms of Net Hydel Profit (NHP) and Rs. 2.5 billion in terms of oil and gas royalty are also due with the federal government.
It was also stated in the letter that Rs. 935 million are required for timely completion of four irrigation dams being constructed under Public Sector Development Program in the province. These dams can play a major role towards food security of the province.
