PESHAWAR, Dec 24: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has released Rs1 billion to the Frontier province against its annual share of net hydel profit.

"The province was released Rs1 billion through a cheque on Thursday and another amount of Rs500 million would be released under the same head in a couple of days," said Brig Tahir Saeed Malik, Chief Executive of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) - a subsidiary of Wapda.

The fresh disbursement, the Pesco chief told Dawn, had been made in line with Wapda's commitment with the province to provide it Rs6 billion every year on account of net hydel profit.

NWFP receives net hydel profit (NHP) every year from Wapda in line with constitutional provision that guarantees payment against the sale proceeds of hydropower produced by power generation units set up in the province.

The disbursement, according to officials, had raised the total amount released so far during the current financial year to Rs2.5 billion. "They (provincial government) would receive half of the annual share well before the end of the first six months of current the financial year," said the Pesco chief.

According to the officials, the province had never received payments against its net hydel profit share in time. During the last military government, the province was used to get bulk of the annual share in the last fifteen days of the financial year.

"That was the worse time the province ever experienced because non-payment of hydel profit for most part of the financial year caused enormous pressure to the provincial kitty, forcing NWFP to heavily rely on the State Bank facility," said a finance manager.

Though Wapda provides Rs6 billion every year, the amount released to the province appeared to be much less than the amount the provincial government has projected in the annual budget for the current financial year.

In its budget, the provincial government had claimed that NWFP would receive Rs8 billion on account of net hydel profit during the current financial year - Rs2 billion more than the capped share of Rs6 billion the province has been receiving every year since early 1990s.

"The amount released to the province so far reflects that the provincial government will not be able to materialize its claim of Rs8 billion," said an official. The fresh disbursement will enable the province to overcome its increasing financial requirements caused by a 15 per cent rise in its annual salary bill which will settle at more than Rs20 billion in the current financial year.