PESHAWAR, March 13: Increase in the NWFP Assembly’s seats coupled with government’s decision to give representation to Fata in the provincial assembly would add to the financial woes of the future provincial government.

Acting on the National Reconstruction Bureau’s proposal, the federal government has recently raised the number of NWFP Assembly seats to 130 from 83. “The move will certainly prove to be a financial burden for the next provincial government that would also inherit over Rs60 billion liabilities, including a major chunk payable to the federal government against the cash development loan the successive provincial governments have been taking,” said official sources.

The final number of the provincial assembly members would be more than 130 in the light of the government’s decision to give representation to Fata in the NWFP Assembly.

Though the number of seats to be allocated to Fata in the NWFP Assembly has not yet been decided, official sources anticipated that there would be more than 20 Fata representatives in the provincial assembly.

The officials based their assumption on the fact that number of Fata seats in the National Assembly had been increased from eight to 12, in line with the government’s notified decision.

“They (Fata people) are likely to get more than 20 seats in the provincial assembly on the basis of the fact that every National Assembly seat involves two to three provincial assembly seats,” said sources in the federal government.

According to figures collected from the provincial government sources, fixation of the provincial assembly seats from 83 to 130 would cause an additional burden of Rs4 million annually for the next provincial government only under one head -  daily allowance at the rate of Rs650 per member per day if provincial assembly remains in session at least for 70 days in a parliamentary year in line with the provincial assembly’s laid down rules.

Expenditures under the head of daily allowance of provincial assembly members would record further increase after allocation of seats to Fata in the provincial assembly.

According to sources, daily allowance would increase from Rs3.8 million per annum to Rs7 million.