KP to face Rs9b shortfall in NHP, says minister

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimoor Salim Jhagra on Thursday disclosed that the province was set to face a shortfall of Rs9 billion in the net hydel profit (NHP) target due to low power generation.

Addressing a press conference here, Taimoor Jhagra said the provincial government had set the target of Rs65 billion under

NHP for the current financial year 2018-19, but the low power generation affected the NHP by Rs9 billion.

However, he added the province has so far received Rs20 billion, while Rs36 billion was being expected by June this year. Referring to National Finance Commission award, the minister said the discussion on NFC was progressing well and no federating unit had so far turned down the suggestion to contribute three percent of its NFC share for the merged districts.

However, there were raising some reservations which would be addressed, he added.

“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is defending the rights of the province relating to NFC above party politics,” he maintained.

Taimoor Jhagra said the federal government has assured to provide special funds for merged districts in the next financial year as the budget for these

areas would now be prepared by the provincial government.

He said that out of a total Rs24 billion annual development programme (ADP) for the merged districts, Rs 17 billion had been released while Rs10 billion had been released from prime minister’s special grant.

The minister added that the federal government had assured to release the fourth instalment for the merged districts shortly.

He said the amount allocated for development in the merged districts would get doubled in the next fiscal year.

The minister said the government has so far released Rs119 billion out of a total 181 billion’s ADP. The priority of the provincial government was mega projects and the schemes near completion.

Taimoor Jhagra maintained that Rs2 billion would be allocated for Haripur Technical University and they were endeavouring to improve ADP of the coming year, besides increasing capability of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) to improve revenue collection in the province as well.