PESHAWAR: The federal government has not released a single penny from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s share in net hydel profit payments since the third quarter of the last financial year totaling Rs6.5 billion.
“We haven’t got Rs3 billion for the last two quarters of fiscal year 2011-12 on account of net hydel profit, while the share for the current financial year worth Rs3.5 billion is also pending,” provincial finance secretary Sahibzada Syed Ahmad told reporters at a briefing here on Monday.The briefing was arranged to highlight five years performance and achievements of the finance department. Provincial minister Mohammad Hamayun Khan and information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain were also in attendance.
The finance secretary said the federal government was supposed to release Rs6 billion to the province for every financial year as per its share defined in the constitution.However, he said, payment on account of regular payment of net hydel profit had been pending since third quarter of the previous financial year.Mr Ahmad said under the formula, the federal government had to pay Rs500 million to the province every month.
He said Article 126 of the Constitution authorised the caretaker government in the province to prepare budget for four months when the provincial assembly stood dissolved and after elections the next government could make budget for the remaining eight months.The secretary said the provincial government had spent 40 per cent of the total annual development programme on developmental schemes so far. He said Rs3 billion had been spent on special initiatives during last five years.
He said the main components of the special initiatives are free distribution of 25,000 laptops among talented graduates, Bacha Khan Self Employment Scheme, Benazir Health Support Programme, establishment of call centres and vocational training for youngsters.Highlighting main achievements of the government, Mr Ahmad said implementation of the seventh National Finance Commission Award was a major success of the government as result of which the provinces share from divisible pool had jumped from 49 per cent to 56 per cent in 2010-11 while it further enhanced to 57.5 per cent for the next four years.
He said under the NFC formula, the province would receive Rs22.071 billion for the current financial year on account of war on terrorism because Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been declared frontline province in this war. The police department budget had been increased from Rs7 billion to Rs22 billion owing to militancy in the region.The secretary said the province’s share from oil and gas royalty had increased from Rs4 billion in 2008 to Rs22 billion in 2012-13. Share of the districts where oil and gas were explored had been increased from five per cent to 10 per cent.
He said the provincial government on the recommendation of the provincial assembly had claimed royalty on extraction of liquid petroleum gas from Chanda Oil Field in Kohat.“The province’s share in oil and gas royalty will increase substantially,” he said, adding that the matter was under discussion between the centre and the province.Mr Ahmad said Bank of Khyber was performing well and its deposits had jumped from Rs24.7 billion in 2008 to Rs58.4 billion in 2012 while the bank credit ranking had moved from triple Bs to A category.
He said the government had the credit for introducing output based budget in the province and internal audit system was being introduced in all departments to bring fiscal management. In first phase internal audit was started in health, education, communication and works and police departments as the cabinet had already approved the system, he added.The secretary said the government had focused on social sector too and that Britain provided it with £2 million for completion of a work plan in Buner and Dera Ismail Khan districts in order to provide better services in health and education sectors.He said the plan was also introduced in other districts of the province. – Dawn
