Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s financial advisor (KP), Muzammil Asm, said the Federal Government is ignoring the province due to the political opposition.
When addressing a press conference after the budget, Aslam declared that the economic position of the federal government is no longer stable, with the growth rate that decreases to 2.7%.
He said that KP was largely ignored in the Federal Development Budget, receiving only RS550 million, which forced the province to increase its own development expense due to federal lack of support.
Aslam said the province achieved 93% of its income goals through its own sources.
However, KP received RS90 billion less than its participation under the National Finance Commission (NFC). He added that the provincial government spent RS20 billion of its own treasure for tribal areas and used RS70 billion for fused districts without any federal support.
He clarified that the province had not taken any new loans. Loans currently received were previously signed agreements. Any future loan, he said, would only be taken for important development projects.
When comparing the budgets, Aslam pointed out that the center’s budget is RS1 billion, while KP is RS547 billion. He said that an NFC meeting had been scheduled for August at the request of KP.
KP’s prime minister said, he raised the question of pending quotas with the center, which had promised payments. Despite this, he said, the federal government never released annual funds that exceed 47 billion rupees for tribal areas.
Aslam acknowledged that for the first time, the center had assigned RS70.4 billion for fused tribal districts. He clarified that RS170 billion in loans were inherited from previous governments.
A fund of RS1.5 billion had been established to administer debt reimbursements. He said that the province is satisfied with his participation as NFC and sees it as the key to resolving his fiscal challenges.
Salaries and pensions, he said, have increased by 10% and 7% respectively, in line with federal adjustments.
For the new fiscal year, the KP government has included development schemes worth RS500 billion in its RS195 billion development budget.
This year, RS145 billion of the RS156 billion assigned for established districts had already been released. For fused tribal areas, RS41 billion were assigned, with RS26.9 billion disbursed.
He described it as the biggest development budget in the history of KP. “When we assume the position, the launch liabilities extended for 10 years, now have been reduced to 5.1 years,” he concluded.
