PESHAWAR, June 26: The NWFP government has moved Centre against freezing of subvention at Rs3.898 billion, official sources said.
In line with the last two financial years, the federal government has allocated Rs3.898 billion on account of subvention to the NWFP for the 2003-04 financial year.
The sources said that the NWFP government had moved the Centre against freezing of the subvention — extended to the NWFP and Balochistan to compensate for their under-development — making a case to get the size of subvention increased for the 2003-04 financial year.
Through an official communique dispatched to the finance division, Islamabad, the NWFP government has sought increase in the size of the subvention for the 2003-04 financial year by over Rs275 million.
The provincial government has made recommendations of the National Finance Commission (NFC) award as a basis for support of its contention to get the size of subvention raised for the 2003-04 financial year.
According to the NFC award’s recommendations, determining the size of subvention is linked with the rate of inflation.
“If they (the federal authorities) calculate the rate of inflation at 3.5 per cent, even then the NWFP should get over Rs4.1 billion in the 2003-04 financial year, getting it raised from Rs3.898 billion released to the province during the outgoing financial year,” said senior finance manager of the province.
Apart from the NWFP, the size of subvention to be extended to Balochistan during the 2003-04 financial year has also been kept at Rs4.805 billion — the amount released to it during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 financial years.
The NWFP government, in this way, according to sources, had also lobbied with Balochistan motivating it to get its share of subvention raised for the 2003-04 financial year by using the office of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali.
“If Balochistan manages to get its share raised by making Mr Jamali to agree to its stand, the NWFP may also get its share enhanced,” said the sources.
Though the provincial government had formally taken up the issue with the finance division, Islamabad, the province, said the sources, was not likely to get subvention beyond Rs3.898 billion during the 2003-04 financial year in view of the lukewarm response meted out to the frequently made requests and demands the successive NWFP governments had been making on various counts.