Muzzammil Aslam, Chief Financial Advisor to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), has cautioned the federal government of Pakistan, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, that the KP government may not be able to meet its commitments to the public if its financial dues are not settled, according to Geo News.
In an interview on Saturday, Aslam emphasized that the federal government should not hold KP accountable for achieving its budget targets if it fails to provide the necessary funds. The provincial government had previously announced a PKR 1,754 billion annual budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, with a projected surplus of PKR 100 billion.
The budget includes PKR 1,654 billion in planned expenditures, with an expected revenue of PKR 1,754 billion for the fiscal year. This amount comprises approximately PKR 1,212 billion from the federal government through Federal Tax Assignments, 1 percent of the divisible pool related to the war on terror, and direct transfers from royalties, surcharges on oil and gas, windfall levies, and net hydel profits.
The report from Geo News highlighted ongoing tensions between the provincial and federal governments regarding the clearance of KP’s dues. KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has even threatened to march on Islamabad if the issue remains unresolved.
Moreover, the KP province has yet to agree to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s central government regarding the surplus budget. This MoU is crucial for the seven-billion-dollar loan agreement between Islamabad and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as noted by Geo News.
A provincial surplus refers to the funds that provinces do not spend from the amounts transferred to them by the federal government. Last month, the KP cabinet stated that it would accept the proposed budget surplus of PKR 178 billion only if the federal government fulfills its commitment to addressing the province’s financial crisis.
The report also mentioned that, despite a 37 percent and 50 percent increase in the budgets for Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), respectively, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government did not increase the budget allocation for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
(With ANI Inputs)
