PESHAWAR: During the past 28 months, the federal government has been paying an average of Rs1 billion per month to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under the National Finance Commission (NFC).
In a total, during these 28 months, the centre has paid Rs27.79 billion less than its share to the provincial government, especially during the current financial year. The record shows that during the four months of the current fiscal year, the federal government paid Rs14.75 billion less than the province’s right.
The documents of provincial Finance Department show that during the fiscal year 2020-21, the KP government was paid Rs11.54 billion less than its share in tax revenues by the federal government in 2020-21 despite having the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the center.
Total tax revenues were Rs4,701 billion in which the share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was Rs429.61 billion but the province was provided Rs418.7 billion. According to the document, during the fiscal year 2021-22, the volume of federal tax revenues increased to Rs6,125 billion, in which the share of the province was Rs560bn however, the province was paid Rs558bn.
However, in the fiscal year 2022-23, provision of funds to the province further decreased. According to the statistics of the finance department, Rs2,148 billion were collected during the four months of the current financial year, in which the share of the province was Rs196.39 billion, but Rs181.64 billion were paid to the province while Rs14.75 billion are yet to be paid.
In July of the current financial year, the federal government collected Rs459bn, of which Rs41.97 billion was the province’s share, but it received Rs38.76 billion was paid. In August, federal government collected Rs491 billion, the share of the province was Rs44.89 billion, but the province was paid Rs43.24 billion. Similarly, in September, the federal government collected Rs685 billion in taxes, in which the province’s share was Rs62.63 billion but it received Rs56.18 billion. In October, federal government was supposed to provide Rs46.90 billion to the province, but Rs43.46 billion were released to KP, which is Rs3.44bn less than its share.
The PTI government in KP believes that the province is facing financial crisis because of the low payments by the federal government and has decided to submit a petition to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to secure the province’s rights from the central government.
