PESHAWAR, May 30: Provincial government is working on its possible recourse to get NWFP’s share in hydel profit for the next five years under the new National Finance Commission award, according to official sources.

“A seven-member task force set up specially to prepare a case for the province.” sources in the provincial cabinet said.

The task force was constituted almost a year ago comprising of senior bureaucrats and provincial minister for irrigation and power Shams-ul-Mulk and minister for finance Farid Rehman, who has been nominated chairman of the task force. But the task force became active only recently after the provincial government’s decision makers realized the need to do the necessary homework to work out a possible recourse the province could take under the new NFC.

Some sources attribute the provincial government’s move to forestall any decision to reduce province’s right to net hydel profit under the new NFC award as the issue had not been taken up so far in working out details for distribution of resources between the federation and its four federating units for the next five years.

According to A.G.N. Qazi formula, agreed between NWFP and Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in the early 1990s, the province has a right to receive Rs 58.74 billion during the five-year term of the current NFC as its share from the net profits accrued from the sale proceeds of hydel power generate in the NWFP.

Against this the province, according to sources, is not likely to get beyond Rs 30 billion. During the first four years of the current NFC’s operations the province received Rs 24 billion or Rs six billion per year.

“The government,” one of the members of the task force said, “is exploring the possible moves it could adopt before the signing of the new NFC award to protect the province’s right to net profit under the new award.”

In line with the first four years of the current NFC’s operations started from the 1997-98 financial year, the province would get the Rs 6 billion capped share during the current financial year. However, before the beginning of the current month the provincial government received Rs 1.7 billion only from Wapda, which created a shortfall in the provincial exchequer.

The NWFP receives over 90 per cent of its Rs 44 billion annual receipts from external resources including 20 per cent from Wapda under the head of net hydel profit. The delay in financial disbursements from Wapda, affects the provincial financial condition.

The federal government’s move of constituting a three-member committee, comprising of one each representative from the federal government, Wapda and provincial government, too could not help in resolving the Wapda-NWFP dispute over the net profit issue.

Though the committee was formed by the federal finance minister Shaukat Aziz during his visit to Peshawar on February 26, 2000, the issue remains to be resolved as the committee has not held a single meeting since its formulation.