KP asks Centre to release development funds under PSDP

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said here Tuesday asked the federal government to release funds it had allocated for carrying out uplift projects in various sectors in the province.
Speaking at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, he lamented that the federal government had allocated funds in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the small federating units but the funds were not released.
Sharing details of the PSDP, he said the federal government had allocated Rs663 billion in the PSDP for the year 2010-11 for carrying out various uplift projects in the country and released only 1.42 percent of the total amount for development work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Now the federal government is not even providing the province details of the total expenditures in the province in the years 2013-14 and 2014-15,” he lamented.He said that the province had billion of rupees of funds outstanding against the federal government on account of its share from the net hydel profit arrears, National Finance Commission (NFC) award, PSDP, facilitating Afghan refugees and other accounts.
He said the federal government was being given billion of dollars under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for its losses in the war against terrorism but the most affected province has not been given due share in the funds. “We are being kept in darkness regarding the CSF,” he added.
“Despite suffering irreparable losses in the war against terrorism we are also not given our due share to revamp the damaged infrastructure and revive the shaky economy,” he added.The minister said the chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) was appointed from Punjab. “The chairman should be appointed on rotation basis as it would help address the sense of deprivation among the small federating units,” he proposed.
He said the province was annually spending an approximate amount of Rs71 billion on Afghan refugees since 1978 and they were also using facilities like education, health services, doing business and other resources of the province.
He said the province was annually spending another huge sum of Rs52 billion on the tribal people from Fata who were using 13 percent resources of the province.
He said that the federal government was responsible to look after the Afghan refugees and tribespeople. He demanded the federal government to pay Rs2,710 billion to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which it had spent on Afghan refugees since 1980 along with that spent on the displaced tribal people.
He said under the clause 1 of article 161 of Constitution of Pakistan, the federal government was entitled to impose excise duty on natural gas at the well-head and collect and pay to the province where the well-head of natural gas is situated.
However, he said the federal government had not imposed the levy on the crude oil produced by the province. “Terming it the violation of the Constitution, he said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could get an extra amount of Rs20 billion per year if the federal government fulfilled its constitutional obligations.
“The federal government is trying to paralyze the province financially,” he alleged.He demanded the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and federal government to pay the net hydel profit arrears to Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa, increase its share in CSF, release funds for looking after the Afghan refugees or else the province would boycott the next NFC award.