PESHAWAR: The KP government is likely to present a budget deficit of Rs160 billion due to non-payment of billions of rupees in net profit and other dues by the federal government, Pakistan Today learnt on Wednesday.
According to the details, the province is facing problems in preparing a budget as the Centre is facing financial difficulties and is unable to provide KP with its complete share of the Net Hydel Profit (NHP).
According to sources in the Finance Department, the KP government will have to present a budget deficit of more than Rs160billion for the next financial year on Friday as it has only been paid Rs15 billion in terms of net profit of electricity from the Centre.
It may be noted here that KP has already faced a cut of Rs154 billion in the National Financial Commission (NFC) due to which it is facing severe financial difficulties.
According to sources, the KP government intends to increase budgets for health, education and public sector departments while development budgets of other departments are likely to be reduced whereas instead of reducing other ongoing expenditures, it has proposed to cut the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of various departments which will result in the termination of a number of important projects.
A day earlier, Provincial Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra had told media that not only Pakistan’s budget but the entire world’s budget has been affected due to coronavirus.
He said that KP will try to present a better budget for the next financial year in the province, adding that the provincial government had incurred a loss of Rs160 billion due to the pandemic during the last three months as revenue had decreased while expenditures had increased.
Due to difficulties, KP has resorted to borrowing money to minimise the development programme and covering the deficit.
“The provincial government is going to present its budget in a very difficult situation at the movement they net profit of electricity has not been paid by the central,” Jhagra said.
Sources stated that despite KP’s provision of electricity to the Centre, the federal government had failed to give the province its right while on the other hand, various wings have been formed by provincial ministers in different departments for which blue-eyed persons have been recruited at hefty salaries.
“The government should have reduced its own expenditure instead of cutting the uplift fund. If the PTI and other parties are compared, PML-N had paid more share of NFC and NHP to the province,” sources said.
