PESHAWAR: NFC signing linked to hydel profit : NWFP demands payment of arrears
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Dec 24: Provincial minister for finance, planning and development Siraj-ul-Haq has said that NWFP will not sign the new National Finance Commission (NFC) award unless issues relating to net hydel profit to the province are resolved.
“We have decided that the new NFC award would not be inked till our grievances regarding net hydel profit, particularly, arrears accumulated against Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), are resolved,” provincial minister for finance Siraj-ul- Haq told Dawn, when contacted, here on Wednesday.
According to him, Wapda owes NWFP Rs342 billion in arrears under the head of net hydel profit.
He said that though federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz had given assurance that NWFP’s issues concerning net hydel profit would be resolved by March 31, 2004 — the date fixed for finalizing the new NFC award — the province would not be able to sign the document if the finance minister did not honour his commitment.
The minister was contacted to reconfirm his remarks, during his address at a public meeting in Haripur on Tuesday, where he made public NWFP’s decision not to sign the new NFC award, unless its issues were resolved.
Later, an official handout issued here on Tuesday evening quoted the minister as having announced that the province would sign the document only if its long-standing issue was resolved before finalizing the new award.
Siraj-ul-Haq, who is also senior minister in the provincial cabinet, told this scribe that “it was our right that at least we should know our exact annual share on account of net hydel profit and settle once and for all the long-pending issue of arrears payable by Wapda under this head”.
He also said he believed that finance minister Shaukat Aziz would honour his commitment and would make Wapda settle the issues to the satisfaction of the province.
“We are not pressing for any personal gain or for the benefit of the provincial government, but rather, we say that the resolution of the issue in favour of the province would benefit the people of NWFP,” he remarked.
The provincial government, he added, was ready to reconcile with Wapda and settle the issue forever.
“We have decided not to sign the new NFC award, because this issue forms an integral part of the province’s current revenue receipts,” said the minister, adding that “we are in real trouble because of non-resolution of the net hydel profit issue”.
The provincial government, he maintained, wanted uncapping of its annual net hydel profit share and determination of the exact ratio of the annual share — which has been capped at Rs 6 billion for the last ten years.
Besides, he said, the provincial government wanted the centre to help the province obtain the arrears accumulated against Wapda, due to non-payment of annual net hydel profit share to NWFP between 1973 and early 1990s.
Earlier, he told the provincial assembly, where he made his winding-up speech on net hydel profit, that the federal government had been moved to make Wapda pay arrears in instalments.
“We have requested the federal finance minister that we don’t say Wapda should pay the arrears in a lump sum, we are ready to acknowledge even easy instalments to recover our outstanding amount against Wapda in fulfilment of NWFP’s constitutional right,” said the minister on the flour of the House on Wednesday.
COMPENSATION: Frontier province Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has directed the authorities concerned to early compensate the Jamrud Road victims for their loss of properties and businesses in the widening of the road.
He was speaking on Wednesday at a high-level meeting here at Frontier’s House.
The chief minister suggested that a decision should be taken in this regard on merit and in the light of ground realities covering legal aspects of the matter.
