QUETTA, March 10: The Balochistan government has registered a shortfall of Rs1 billion in federal revenue receipts in first six months of the current financial year.

This was stated by Provincial Finance Minister, Syed Ehsan Shah while talking to Dawn, here on Wednesday and said, "we have received Rs1 billion less then our estimated projections in last six months."

He said that presently Balochistan government was facing financial crisis that forced the financial managers to take over-draft from the State Bank for running current expenditures. "We have obtained so far Rs3 billion over-draft from the State Bank while our limit was only Rs700 million," Syed Ehsan Shah said.

He said that province had also suffered a loss of around Rs400 million as Balochistan's grant was reduced according to the new population figures of 1998 census. The census could not be held in some areas of Balochistan due to boycott of a political party.

"We received 0.02 per cent less grant from the federal government due to new reduced figures," Finance Minister said, adding that it also affected the financial position of the province.

He said that Balochistan had not received $100 million loan from Asian Development Bank that could badly affect the development process in the province. He said that delay in approval of ADB loan would create more financial problems for Balochistan.

The Finance Minister, Syed Ehsan Shah replying to a question said that negotiations were under way with Asian Development Bank for the approval of this loan for Balochistan.

Responding to yet another question, he said that if Balochistan's formula for the distribution of resources in next National Finance Commission Award was accepted the province would get more funds from the federal resources that would help taking out Balochistan from the continuous financial crisis.

He said that informal meeting of the National Finance Commission would be held on March 13 in Islamabad. He said that a meeting of the NFC would be held in Quetta this month but its date was not finalized so far.

The Provincial Finance Minister, Syed Ehsan Shah said that National Economic Council meeting is going to be held in Islamabad on March 15. The Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali would preside over the meeting.

The Chief Ministers, provincial finance ministers and ministers for planning and development of all the four provinces would participate in the meeting. He said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was helping Balochistan in all respects.