PESHAWAR, Sept 6: The NWFP government intends to pay over Rs1.1 billion during the current financial year to some of its semi-autonomous bodies, according to official sources.
Part of the funds would be given as loan and the rest to pay back loans the previous governments had borrowed from some of the autonomous bodies to meet their essential expenditures.
"Given the provincial government has ample funds, it intends to repay part of the funds it owes to some of its semi-autonomous bodies," said a well-placed official of the provincial government.
Official sources said that the bulk of the funds would go to the Sarhad Hydel Development Organziation (Shydo). The other recipients are: the Frontier Education Foundation, the NWFP Textbook Board and the Forest Development Corporation, etc.
The previous governments, according to official sources, had borrowed funds from the semi-autonomous organizations to meet their essential fund requirements. The money to be paid to them would serve the loans the previous governments had taken from them from time to time.
However, the money to be given to Shydo would be in the form of a loan. The Sarhad Hydel Development Organziation, a semi-government institution, is entrusted with the task of of promoting hydroelectric generation by bringing under use the hydro power potential in several parts of the province.
It had taken multi-billion rupees' loan from the provincial government long ago to use it for generating electricity. However, Shydo failed to use the money it had been given by the government and the last military-backed civil government took back Rs2 billion from Shydo.
"The money being given back to Sarhad Hydel Development Organziation would actually be adjusted against the funds the last provincial government had withdrawn from it," said a finance manager of the province.
The organization, said the official, needed resources to execute some of the hydropower projects the organization wanted to execute in different parts of the province. However, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government's plan to pay Rs1.1 billion to its semi-autonomous bodies largely depended on the availability of funds, the government sources said.
"The government will only be able to execute its plan if it manages to mobilize additional funds, otherwise, at present it does not have much fiscal space to take care of expenditure heads other than the most significant one that include the salary head and utility charges," the sources further said.
In its budget for the current financial year, the government has reflected an amount of Rs3.02 billion which it would borrow from sources it has not yet determined. Most possibly, said the sources, this amount would be raised from different types of public funds the government was maintaining, including the pension fund and the gratuity and provident funds, which were being maintained to take care of the post-retirement benefits payable to the retiring civil servants.
"The government has a total of around Rs5 to Rs7 billion in both the funds of which it may borrow around Rs3 billion to materialize its plan to lend money to Shydo and pay part of the funds it owes to some of its own entities," said a senior officer.
