July 1, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 30, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, June 30: The district government has expressed its inability to repay two loans, amounting to Rs381.8 million, to the provincial government.

The Punjab government had extended the loans to the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) during the financial years 2001-02 and 2002-03 for repayment of its liabilities relating to rehabilitation of roads and the Nullah Leh expansion project.

The loans had been given through the district government on the condition that it would repay the principal amount plus the markup.

However, after disbursement of the loans, the RDA was devolved as an autonomous body to the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) with tehsil Nazim as its chairman.

After reviewing the matter, the finance and planning (F&P) committee of the District Council has recommended that the RDA should itself repay the loans as it was no more under the district government’s administrative control.

It said that if the RDA was unable to repay the loans, the liability should be transferred to the TMA, which now governs the RDA and had benefited from the loans.

The convener of the F&P committee, Chaudhry Ejaz Hussain, told Dawn that the committee had thoroughly debated the issue and concluded that the district had no resources to repay the loans.

He said the case had been taken up with the Punjab government but no response had been received so far.

The district government in its budget announced on Saturday declared that it had got no revenue sources of its own and was entirely dependent on the allocation received from the provincial government.

“Whatsoever sources of revenue the district government had till last year have been devolved to the TMA,” an official of the finance department said.

District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani, while referring the matter to the Punjab government, has pleaded that the loans should be converted into grants.

He contended that the repayment of the loans from the Annual Development Programme would be difficult for the district government.

Meanwhile, the district government has separately requested the Punjab government to provide an additional grant of Rs870 million to extricate itself from financial problems.

The district government said it required the amount for implementing various directives of prime minister and the chief minister (Rs320 million); initiating work on the unfunded schemes inherited at the time of devolution (Rs50 million); bringing Murree, Kotli Sattian and Kahuta tehsils at par with other parts of the district (Rs200 million); rehabilitation of the calamity- hit areas of Murree, Kahuta and Kotli Sattian tehsils (Rs100 million) and providing facilities in health and education institutions (Rs50 million).