KP govt gets aid, loans worth Rs82 billion

PESHAWAR: Instead of breaking the begging bowl, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government is heavily relying on foreign loans and aid to run the provincial machinery. According to the federal budget for 2017-18, the provincial government will collectively get aid and loans worth Rs82 billion from various foreign institutions for development plans and programmes. The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is already paying an annual interest of Rs8 billion -- on previously acquired loans – which is going to witness a further increase next year.

According to the documents of ‘White Paper 2017-18’ of the KP Finance Department, KP is taking a loan of Rs53 billion and an aid of Rs29.442 billion from the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, JICA Japan, UNDP-SDC, NAS, DFID United Kingdom,  MDTM, USAID, Unicef, GTZ, KfW, the European Union, UNOPS and SFD. According to the same documents, the KP government will take Rs52 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The ADB will also give a grant of Rs82.9 million to the KP government. From this amount, Rs5.24 billion will be used to develop roads across KP and more than Rs44 billion will be used for the rapid bus project in Peshawar.

The Australian Aid will give Rs100 million grant to the KP government to work on making the women of the province more economically independent and empowered.  The COF Japan will give a grant of Rs204 million, while DFID United Kingdom will give Rs5.802 billion grant to the province. These grants will be used on various plans, including the health sector.  On the other hand, DFID United Kingdom and the European Union will give a collective grant of Rs4.835 billion to the province to get new furniture for schools and work on developing infrastructure of schools in KP. Following aid will also be received: Rs85 million from Holland, Rs2.907 billion from the European Union, Rs215.7 million from GAOI (Switzerland). These aid will help curb forced child labour from KP and will also be used  on various development projects for children.

The International Development Association will give Rs5.1 million loan and JICA Japan will give Rs500 million loan. JICA Japan will also give Rs5.6 million grant to the KP government. The SFD (Saudi Arabia) will give Rs1 billion aid to the KP government to execute different plans and programmes. The United Nations will give Rs1.93 billion grant to the province. On the other hand, the UNDP will give a grant of Rs1.30 billion and the Unicef will give a grant of Rs40 million to the KP government to curb nutritional deficiencies from the province. These grants will also be used to control forced child labour and other related problems.

While talking to The News, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Finance Minister Muzaffar Said clarified that the KP government was not taking grants and loans for ostentatious spenders. “However, these aids will be utilised in a way that would benefit the people at large,” he said and added “In this way, the people of KP will be benefited and the income of the province will also be increased.” The provincial minister said that a loan of Rs12 billion will be used to develop roads, hydel power projects and canals. “Approval of the provincial assembly was also sought for this loan,” Said added. “Foreign help obtained for different projects is being carefully used for those projects only.”

The minister said, “A loan is being taken from the Asian Development Bank for the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project.” He added that the loan was still not received. He further highlighted that the former governments had looted the foreign loans and aids. “They also got the national loans waived off,” he concluded.

While talking to The News, PTI Central Deputy Information Secretary Shaukat Yousafzai said that loans were taken on insignificant basis in the past in order to make Pakistan an indebted country. “Loans taken in the name of development went into the pockets of influentials,” he said, adding that their government was taking loans for development projects, which would not affect the country or the national exchequer. “The loans will be paid off from the income generated through the same development projects.”