KP Chief Financial Advisor warns Pak govt over dues settlement
Aug 11, 2024
Peshawar (Pakistan) August 11 : Chief Financial Advisor to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muzzammil Aslam warned the Pakistani federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that the KP government would not be able to fulfil its commitments towards the public if its dues are not cleared, Geo News reported.
While speaking in an interview on Saturday, Aslam stated that the Centre should not hold KP accountable for meeting its budget target if it fails to provide the necessary funding.
The provincial government unveiled a PKR 1,754 billion annual budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, with a surplus of PKR 100 billion earlier this year, according to Geo News.
The budget outlined PKR 1,654 billion in expenditures and anticipated receiving PKR 1,754 billion in revenue for the fiscal year 2024-25.
This total includes around PKR 1,212 billion from the federal government through Federal Tax Assignment, 1 per cent of the divisible pool related to the war on terror, as well as direct transfers from royalties, surcharges on oil and gas, windfall levies, and net hydel profit.
The Geo News report further noted that the provincial and federal governments have been at odds over the issue of clearing the provincial dues of the KPK, with KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur even threatening to march on Islamabad.
Additionally, the KPK province has not yet agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prime Minister Shehbaz's central government regarding the surplus budget.
This MoU is a prerequisite due to the seven-billion-dollar loan deal between Islamabad and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as reported by Geo News.
The report also noted that a provincial surplus is the amount provinces do not spend from the funds transferred to them by the federal government.
Last month, the KPK cabinet stated that it would accept the proposed budget surplus of PKR 178 billion only if the federal government honoured its promise to address the province's financial crisis.
Furthermore, the report mentioned that despite a 37 per cent and 50 per cent increase in the budgets for Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), respectively, Prime Minister Shehbaz's government did not increase the budget for KPK.
