June 29, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 2, 1427

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PESHAWAR, June 28: Provincial Finance Minister Sirajul Haq informed the NWFP Assembly on Wednesday that the government had to meet an additional expenditure of Rs23.9 billion owing to the Oct 8 earthquake and other natural calamities in 2005-06.

Winding up the debate on the supplementary budget, he said the quake caused great damage to the life and property in Shangla area and four districts of Hazara and disturbed the development programme. Earlier, he added, floods had made the life miserable in parts of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera.

The minister said that out of supplementary allocations for 2005-06 the government had released Rs12.2 billion to meet immediate needs of people flocking to government offices in the quake-hit areas and for their rehabilitation.

Under such circumstances, he said, it was difficult to deduct the Rs12.2 billion from supplementary allocations.

He said the government had also given a substantial amount to the flood-affected people of Charsadda, Swabi, Nowshera, Peshawar and some areas along the Kabul river. He said some of the affected villagers were still rebuilding their houses.

Mr Haq said that rise in the price of construction material also disturbed the size of allocations, forcing the government to revise the budget or change its development priorities.

He said that despite financial constraints the government paid Rs10 billion to Islamabad in 2005-06 against the debt.

The minister said the MMA government could obtain the amount on low mark-up rate from financial institutions to clear the debt in one go, but it was not being allowed to do so.

Earlier, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians criticised the government for making excess allocations in the supplementary budget and said the spending of such additional money was never seen in the past. He said the government had mixed up the supplementary budget with the excess budget statement and quoted Article 124 of the Constitution in support of his point. Mr Akbar Khan said the finance minister did not mention a difference of Rs6.7 billion in his budget speech and added that the government had sought Rs700 million for the police department.