29 October 2004	Friday	14 Ramazan 1425

QUETTA, Oct 28: The State Bank has converted the overdraft of the Balochistan government into a loan, to be paid back in instalments on lenient terms, a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf was informed on Thursday.

The meeting reviewed the implementation of the annual development programme under the existing financial situation of the province.

Officials of the planning and development and finance departments said in their briefings that the provincial government would get soon loan from the Asian Development Bank on lenient terms for the Balochistan resource management programme.

It was decided that half of the loan's first instalment would be utilized for development projects and half to pay the debt of the centre, which carried a high interest.

They said the move would save Rs600 million in interest.

It was decided that priority would be given to the ongoing projects and the important ones among the new schemes.

The chief minister said he had discussed the province's financial problems, its gas royalty dues and its point of view on the National Finance Commission award with the prime minister's advisor for finance in Islamabad.

He said that if the federal government agreed with Balochistan's version on the issues, it would help the province as allocation of funds was necessary for completion of projects.