LAHORE, Jan 11: A spokesman of the provincial finance department has contradicted a news item which appeared in the daily Dawn on Wednesday claiming that the Punjab was heavily dependent on the State Bank overdraft because of its capital-intensive mega projects.

Describing the news item as ‘totally baseless, misleading and misconceived,’ the spokesman clarified that the consolidated cash balances of the Punjab government had remained continuously positive over the past four years. “Therefore, the question of an overdraft from the State Bank does not arise.”

The spokesman further clarified that the Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) of the Punjab included mega projects as special initiatives of the provincial government. The spokesman said that the resource requirements for the mega projects and other development needs were very comfortably aligned with, and well accommodated within the estimated inflow of revenues as reflected in Punjab’s three-year rolling Medium Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF).