PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah here Monday said that merged districts need special attention to its development and redressal of its deprivations.
He said that all-out efforts would be made to steer the province out of this financial crisis.
The CM said this while presiding over an important meeting regarding financial issues of the province held here atChief Minister’s House on Monday.
The meeting discussed in detail the financial issues of the province, especially of the merged districts related to the federal government, and decided to take up those issues with the caretaker prime minister for redressal.
Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, IGP Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur, Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, Additional Chief Secretary Home Muhammad Abid Majeed, Senior Member Board of Revenue Ikramullah Khan, Secretary Finance Aamir Sultan Tareen and other relevant officials attended the meeting.
Caretaker provincial minister for Tribal Affairs Amer Abdullah also attended the meeting via video link. Briefing the meeting about the current financial situation of the province, it was informed that the administrative merger of the erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had been completed, but financial integration is still incomplete due to which, the provincial government is facing financial problems.
The meeting was told that as per the existing population after merger of erstwhile FATA, the NFC share of the province comes to 19.64% of the total but the province is getting only 14.62%, and added that annually, Rs 142 billion are required for the current expenditures of NMDs but only Rs 66 billion have been allocated to this effect for the current fiscal year and thus, the government is facing a deficit of Rs 76 billion only in terms of current expenditures.
The participants of the meeting were told that a commitment to provide a sum of Rs 19.7 billion for strengthening of police in the merged
districts was also made but not yet fulfilled.
About the outstanding dues under the head of Net Hydel Profit, it was apprised that approximately Rs. 88 billion are due against the federal government whereas Rs 50 billion under the head of windfall levy on oil are also due against the federal government.