June 23, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1428

QUETTA, June 22: Balochistan would be the first province in the country to pay back the entire federal government’s cash development loans (CDLs) within the next fiscal year.

This was announced by Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah at a post-budget press conference here on Friday. Finance Secretary Mehfooz Ali Khan was present on the occasion.

The minister said that the provincial government would pay back Rs2 billion to Islamabad next month, reducing the unpaid CDLs to about Rs1.4 billion which would also be paid within the next financial year.

He informed newsmen that Balochistan had obtained Rs19 billion CDLs between 1970 and 2003. Though it paid back Rs41.38 billion as interest and principal amount its liability remained Rs15.38 billion by June 2003. Since then, the provincial government pursued a policy of retiring expensive CDLs with relatively less expensive foreign loans. One such loan of $85 million, obtained from the Asian Development Bank at 1.5 per cent interest, was used to retire expensive CDLs. By June 2006, the government had retired Rs10.68 billion which saved more than Rs1 billion in debt-servicing, the minister added.

During the current fiscal year, Mr Shah said Balochistan paid Rs9.40 billion to clear Rs7 billion CDLs, Rs911.54 million foreign loans and Rs1.50 billion floating loans. Another amount of Rs2.81 billion was paid as interest on the loans.

Answering a question about a deficit of over Rs10 billion in the 2007-08 budget, the minister said last year’s budget also carried a big deficit, but the government managed to clear a major part of its debt and take up the development programme. He said the federal government had indicated that Balochistan would get Rs5 billion as gas development surcharge and gas royalty during the next financial year.

Mr Shah said that for the last three years the government had been focussing on expeditious completion of ongoing schemes. “We dropped the schemes on which significant progress was not made,” he added.Responding to another question, the minister said the provincial government had already entered into a partnership with private companies to exploit mining, fisheries and agriculture. He said the government had 25 per cent equity in Rico Dik Copper-Gold Project and 10 per cent in Dhodhar Zinc-Lead Project.He said the Balochistan government was exploiting fisheries resources in the 15 nautical miles economic zone. Vessels were arriving and local fishermen were being given training, he added.

Mr Shah said that the Balochistan government had a claim of Rs18 billion on the Sindh government for Hub dam and Kachhi water use. The prime minister had already discussed the issue with the Sindh governor, he said.

The minister said that a proposal for setting up a provincial bank had been put off after the State Bank of Pakistan said that the market was saturated and there was no room for a new bank. “But this time we are approaching the central bank with a private partner,” he said.

He also expressed the hope that a Balochistan television channel would be launched some time next year.

The minister dismissed as propaganda reports that development fund had been allocated only for three districts of the province. He said the government was giving equal attention to all districts and at least Rs100 million would be spent in every district.