PESHAWAR, May 20: The NWFP government will have to arrange substantial funds before the end of the current financial year to honour its commitment for the foreign-funded projects, according to official sources. Under the current year’s annual development programme (ADP), the government had projected a foreign-funded component of Rs5.65 billion.

These sources said that in accordance with its commitment to donors the government was supposed to arrange about Rs950 million for executing some 39 projects.

“However,” said an official source, “the government could arrange only between Rs200 million and Rs300 million during the first nine months of 2004-05.”

Out of the Rs5.65 billion projected as the total size of the foreign component, Rs4.4 billion was to come as loan from lending agencies and the rest was pledged as grant by foreign donors.

The province, however, could utilize only Rs1 billion during the July-March period.

Provincial Finance Minister Sirajul Haq told a press conference recently that low expenditure was due to the fact that it entailed several new projects.

The foreign component of the current annual development programme comprised more than 10 new development projects. The sources said that the government was unlikely to fulfil the commitment and it would cut down the size of the foreign-funded component of the annual development programme considerably.