PESHAWAR, Dec 15: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will press the National Finance Commission (NFC) in its meeting on Friday (today) for increasing its annual net hydel profit and allocating funds for starting work on the Chashma Right Bank Canal project, it is learnt.
“Punjab gets Rs5 billion net hydel profit annually for its lone hydel power project at Ghazi while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa receives only Rs6 billion a year for generating over 3,000MW electricity from its three hydel power units,” said Senator Haji Adeel, the KP's NFC member. Mr Adeel told Dawn on Thursday that the province would ask the commission to increase its hydel profit share capped at Rs6 billion since 1991-92. He said that the increase should be determined in accordance with the A.G.N. Kazi formula approved by the Council of Common Interests in 1992.
The NFC, reconstituted in August last to prepare the next award and monitor implementation of the existing one, is meeting in Islamabad on Friday (today) with Federal Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh in the chair.
When contacted, Mr Adeel said the province would convey its dismay over the non-implementation of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's instructions issued in 2009 for resolving the issue to the satisfaction of the province.
He said that a special technical committee set up by the prime minister with representation of the KP and Wapda for resolving the hydel profit issue between the two sides had not even met for the last one year.
The senator said that the province would also raise the non-implementation of the Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) project, which was vital to bringing vast tracts of barren cultivable land under irrigation in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts.
Mr Adeel complained that the federal government did not release a single rupee for starting work on the CRBC project last year after allocating Rs400 million under its Public Sector Development Programme. He said that it had set aside only Rs100 million for the project under the existing PSDP.
“No disbursements have been made even this year,” Mr Adeel said.
The province would inform the NFC that the delay in the project was depriving it from harnessing the two districts' agriculture potential as a source to alleviate poverty.
In accordance with the federal government's commitment made at the time of finalising the existing (7th NFC) award, the province should get Rs110 billion hydel profit arrears in five years, he said. An amount of Rs10 billion, he added, was released in 2009 and the remaining Rs100 billion was committed to be released in four equal yearly installments of Rs25 billion each in four years.
“As per the decision, the federal government is required to release the Rs25 billion in one go in July every year, but since July 2011 the amount is being paid in monthly installments in violation of the decision,” said the KP's NFC member. He said that the province would ask the federal government to pay 10 per cent interest for not paying the amount (Rs25 billion) in one installment.
Meanwhile, official sources told Dawn that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would support Punjab and Balochistan over the issue of sales tax on services, in opposition to Sindh's views on GST on services.
“There are several types of businesses that might be headquartered in Karachi, but the actual commercial activities are taking place in KP, Punjab and Balochistan,” said Mr Adeel.
Giving an example, he said many customs clearance agents from KP handling business with Afghanistan had their offices set up in Karachi because of its proximity to the seaport.
“We think the GST collected by the Sindh government on such services should be shared with other federating units,” said Mr Adeel.