PESHAWAR: Doubts over govt claim of Rs8bn hydel profit
By Intikhab Amir
PESHAWAR, July 26: The provincial government's claim that it has secured an increase of Rs2 billion in the NWFP's annual capped share amount of the net hydel profit for the 2004-05 financial year lacks credibility as it has no document to prove its position, official sources said.
In its budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year, the government has projected a revenue receipt of Rs8 billion from the net hydel profit - effecting an increase by Rs2 billion than the last financial year's actual receipts.
However, according to information gathered from official sources, the provincial government projected the increase without anything in writing from the Centre. "The federal government has not given anything in writing viz-a-viz increase in the NWFP's net hydel profit share," said an officer of the finance division, Islamabad, when contacted by Dawn.
Wapda has been releasing Rs6 billion to the NWFP every year since 1991-92 financial year on account of net hydel profit. The province receives this amount as its annual share from the net profit accrued from the sales proceeds of hydel power generated at hydel power units established in the NWFP including mega-power generation project at Tarbela.
Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq had taken the stand that the province had reflected the increase on the basis of a commitment by the then prime minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
"It was not more than a verbal commitment by the then prime minister," said a source in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government. The provincial government, according to the sources, has recently moved the federal government to secure a written assurance in an effort to substantiate its stated position.
However, the official dispatch from the province, said the MMA source, had not yet been responded by the federal government creating confusion among the official circles in Peshawar about the future of the Rs8 bn budgetary projection.
Though the provincial government had taken credit for securing a Rs2 billion increase in the NWFP's annual net hydel profit share, members of the combined opposition in the provincial assembly have been rejecting the government's claim as an attempt to draw political mileage.
Haji Mohammed Adeel, a senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), in a press statement few days back, had said that the provincial government would not be able to turn its claim into a reality because "it was only an attempt to deceive people".
