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| June 18, 2003 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1424 |
NWFP warns of legal battle over hydel profit
PESHAWAR, June 17: The NWFP government has expressed the resolve that if the federal government does not settle the net hydel profit issue it may take the legal route to get due constitutional right of the province.
“As a last resort we can opt for taking the legal course to get the constitutional right of the province vis-a-vis payment of net hydel profit,” said NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq in reply to a question during his post-budget press conference on Tuesday.
The MMA government’s stand, said the minister, over the net hydel profit issue was not aimed at confronting the federal government as “we are not demanding any incentive for a particular party or an individual. Rather, we are trying to get honoured the constitutional right of the people of the NWFP”.
Finance Secretary Ziaur Rehman, in reply to a question, disputed Wapda’s stand that Rs4.5 billion had been released to the NWFP as its net hydel profit share during the current financial year out of the Rs6 billion capped share amount.
He said the NWFP had received only Rs3.5 billion and Wapda was to pay Rs2.5 billion more.
“And we are not accounting for the Rs1 billion Wapda had deducted at source to recover arrears payable by the provincial government’s departments and local bodies institutions,” said the finance secretary.
The minister appeared evasive when asked whether the NWFP government would charge the small borrowers interest on loans from Rs25,000 to Rs100,000 under a scheme being launched by the Bank of Khyber, and whether the MMA government would accept Rs152 billion interest from Wapda, which makes part of the NWFP’s total claim of Rs298 billion net hydel profit to be paid by Wapda.
“We have taken a stand for the payment of Rs298 billion which certainly includes interest but a decision whether we will accept the interest component or not will be taken at an appropriate time,” said the minister, adding “the interest amount can be used to strengthen road network in the province”.
In an apparent shift from the MMA’s stated stand on the mark-up issue, he said the lending scheme being launched by the Bank of Khyber to extend small loans to 7,200 men and women would involve marginal mark-up.
WORLD BANK LOAN: Admitting that the NWFP government could not fulfil most of the conditionalities agreed with the World Bank under its Structural Adjustment Credit programme, the financial minister said that when the MMA had come to power the first half of the financial year had already passed.
Despite the fact that half of the financial year had passed the financial discipline and management exercised by the MMA government helped the province to convert the current financial year’s budget from deficit to surplus.
The outgoing financial year’s budget — presented by the military-backed civil government — contained a deficit of Rs1.7 billion, said the minister, adding “but as a result of financial management exercised by the MMA government the province is set to record a surplus of over Rs850 million when the financial year will end on June 30.
The minister expressed the hope that contentious issues hampering the release of the second tranche of the World Bank loan would be resolved and the province would get the loan instalment by November or December.
The additional chief secretary, Jehangir Bashr, said the World Bank’s mission would visit Peshawar in July to review progress on the reforms programme.
“In May they had come to review progress of the first three quarters, now they would have a 12 months’ picture,” said the official.
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