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PESHAWAR, Dec 08 (APP):The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly with Speaker Babar Salim Swati in chair on Monday was informed that in the past four tenures, the loans taken by the provincial government have exceeded 870 billion rupees.
The Assembly was told that as of 30 June 2024, the total foreign currency debt liability of the provincial government stands at 679.547 million rupees, calculated on the basis of an exchange rate of 285 rupees per US dollar.
At present, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government does not owe any domestic debt of any kind.
During the Assembly session’s question hour, PPP’s Parliamentary Leader Ahmed Kundi asked that since 2008, the loans taken have reached 870 billion rupees, and the matter should be sent to the Standing Committee.
Chairman of the Standing Committee and MPA Arbab Usman said that the Standing Committee is not being given importance and despite the notification, the Finance Department is not responding to them.
He said the departments should be bound by rules to respond to the committee within one week.
The Speaker ruled that he will summon the record myself. If there has been negligence, no secretary will be able to retain his position.
Law Minister Aftab Alam maintained that the volume of loans increased due to the rise in the value of the dollar. He said they have no objection if the question is referred to the standing committee. With the approval of the House, the Speaker referred the question to the standing committee.
In response to a question by MPA Ashbar Jadoon, the House was informed that during the fiscal year 2024–25, the province did not face any financial deficit instead, due to effective planning and financial discipline, the government showed a surplus of 178 billion rupees.
Total revenue was 1,482.767 billion rupees while total expenditure remained Rs1,477.736 billion and the surplus amounted to 5.031 billion rupees.
In response to a question by MPA Ehsanullah, the concerned minister replied that in 2022, out of the 10 billion rupees allocated, 4.9 billion rupees had already been paid to flood-affected people, while the remaining cases were sent to the Finance Division in 2022.
However, instructions will now be issued to ensure timely payment to the remaining affected persons.
PML-N member Amna Sardar requested details of the provincial government’s nominations of directors in the Bank of Khyber. Law Minister Aftab Alam responded that the proportion of the private Board of Directors was higher due to their shares, but their number was later reduced.
He accepted that the member was correct in saying that director details had not been provided to her.
The Speaker expressed anger and said “why do you hide the incompetence of departments? Ask for clarification from whoever submitted this response.
He ruled that these officials take full salaries and benefits, yet this is the condition of institutions..After this, he sent the question to the standing committee.