PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has accused the finance ministry of “manipulating figures” to put the province’s cash surplus at Rs86 billion instead of the actual Rs169 billion and bolstering Punjab’s figures.

The finance ministry, in its latest report regarding fiscal operations for July to December, which was released on Friday, said KP’s cash surplus was Rs86 billion with a “statistical discrepancy” of Rs34 billion.

It added that KP’s spending totaled Rs591 billion against the revenue of Rs677 billion from the July-December period.

The ministry said the “statistical discrepancy” happened mainly due to a decline in the deposits of the provincial government’s entities with the scheduled banks as reported by the State Bank of Pakistan. It put the Punjab government’s revenue at Rs1.9 trillion and spending at Rs1.53 trillion, with a cash surplus of Rs333 billion. However, the province recorded a statistical discrepancy of over Rs198 billion.

CM aide insists ‘petty politicking’ will not hurt province’s interests

When contacted, adviser to the KP chief minister on finance Muzammil Aslam said that the province’s cash surplus was Rs103 billion for the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, whereas Punjab recorded a deficit of Rs160 billion, which was corrected around a week later showing a cash surplus of Rs40 billion.

He said that at that time the KP government’s financial performance was praised, while the Punjab government was criticised for failing to its commitment for cash surplus, which was binding on both provinces as well as the federal government under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan deal.

Mr Aslam said that in the recent fiscal operation report, Punjab’s cash surplus has been shown as Rs333 billion, just to show the Punjab government in a good light.

He said the finance ministry report showed the Punjab statistical discrepancy to be around Rs198 billion insisting it was mainly due to below-the-line (financing) expenditure as reported by Accountant General Punjab.

The aide to the CM said that the provincial government still has about Rs145 billion but the federal finance ministry showed them as Rs86 billion.

He said that during the last six months, the KP government had transferred Rs30 billion to its debt management fund whereas also returned Rs40 billion to the pension and gratuity fund.

Mr Aslam said that the federal government showed reduced cash balance by manipulating statistical discrepancies.

He said that the federal government was playing politics and changing financial figures to show Punjab in a good light.

“This kind of petty politicking will not hurt our province’s interests. We have our money no matter if the federal government shows it less on paper,” he said.

The chief minister’s adviser said that the fiscal operation data for July to Sept 2024 showed KP’s revenues at Rs316 billion and spending at Rs212 billion, leaving a cash surplus of Rs103 billion.

He said that the IMF’s $7 billion Extended Fund Facility targeted an underlying general government primary surplus of one per cent of GDP and Rs1.217 trillion cash surplus target from the provinces for the current fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2025