PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan has asked the federal government to release dues of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amounting to several billions of rupees.

As an important step towards steering the province out of current financial crunch, he has taken up KP’s financial issues related to federation with the federal government.

The caretaker chief minister has sent a letter to prime minister for seeking special support to reduce the financial difficulties of the province, according to a statement issued here on Tuesday.

The letter said that federal government had agreed to provide funds for current and development budgets of merged districts. However, there has been a gap in the transfer of funds to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ever since the merger.

Cumulatively the funding gap against federal budgetary committed allocation for tribal districts for both current and development budgets for the years 2019-20 to 2022-23 has reached an amount to Rs144.4 billion.

Similarly, only Rs75.5 billion has been received by the province from the centre during the past four years for Accelerated Implementation Plan for tribal districts against the total committed amount of Rs400 billion, which results in the funding gap exceeding Rs469 billion. The funding shortfall in federal tax assignment is amounting to Rs25 billion. Besides, Rs49.5 billion in terms of net hydel profit and Rs2.5 billion in terms of oil and gas royalty are also due with the federal government.

The letter said that Rs935 million was required for timely completion of four irrigation dams being constructed under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the province. These dams can play a major role in ensuring food security.

The chief minister has also sought provision of Rs10 billion under flood relief assistance, which was announced by prime minister during his visit to the flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The letter also requested re-allocation of 100 MMCFD gas from power to industrial sector. It said that the matter regarding payment of net hydel profit as per the AGN Qazi formula might be placed in the next meeting of Council of Common Interests.

The chief minister hoped that the prime minister would extend special cooperation to the province for its financial stability.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2023