Letter to PM: KP seeks Centre’s help to cope with financial crunch

PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan has written a letter to the federal government seeking its help in addressing the financial difficulties of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

An official handout said that the chief minister wrote the letter in an effort to steer the province out of the current financial crunch. In the letter, the caretaker chief minister has requested the prime minister for special support in order to reduce the financial difficulties of the province.

The letter reminded the prime minister that the federal government had agreed to fund the 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 Rs144.4 billion, the letter read

It further said that only Rs75.5 billion had been received in the past four years for Accelerated Implementation Plan of NMDs against the total committed amount of Rs400 billion, adding that this had resulted in the funding gap exceeding Rs469 billion whereas the funding shortfall in federal tax assignment amounted to Rs25 billion.

The communique said that Rs49.5 billion in terms of net hydel profit (NHP) and Rs2.5 billion in terms of oil and gas royalty were also due with the federal government. The letter stated that the province required Rs935 million for timely construction of four dams under the Public Sector Development Programme. The chief minister requested the federal government to provide the Rs10 billion in flood relief assistance, which the prime minister had announced during his visit to the flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It also sought the re-allocation of 100 MMCFD gas from power to the industrial sector. The letter requested that the matter regarding payment of net hydel profit as per the AGN Kazi formula be placed in the next meeting of the Council of Common Interests.