Peshawar August 26 2022: KP government in a letter written to finance Minister as a follow up of MoU implementation refuses to accept IMF board condition of generating Rs 100 billion surplus.
IMF board is set to meet on Monday 29th August for combined 7th and 8th review of Extended Fund Facility that will pave way for release of $1.2 billion from fund.
In a letter KP Government cites that “When we last met, the federal government committed to resolve our major financial issues. In return, as committed, I obtained the authorization of the Chief Minister, for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to sign on to the MoU and did so within 24 hours. We did this in the greater national interest. However, in contrast to this, in the intervening period of almost 2 months, we have been unable to get time to meet either with the Minister or the Secretary, even once. This despite repeated requests.”
KP government estimate that the overall impact of Federal not not resolving agreed upon issues is actually to create a Rs 100 billion unfunded liability in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa budget.
Now, make the situation even more challenging, the monsoonal flooding that we are currently facing, that as we speak has wreaked destruction in Swat, DI Khan and Tank, but that may over the course of the next few hours and days, make the damage from this year’s flooding greater than the super-floods of 2010. The cost in terms of rescue, relief, rehabilitation and building back is likely to run into the tens of billions.
Please note that in these conditions, and without the resolution of the issues highlighted previously, for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to actually leave a surplus will be next to impossible.
