Miftah not honoring commitment for creating budget surplus, says Jhagra

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Taimur Saleem Jhagra said on Monday that the finance minister is not honoring commitment made at the time of signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for creating budget surplus as required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Addressing a press conference along with former federal finance minister Asad Umar, Jhagra said that the federal finance ministry had committed to ensure funds for the FATA districts and Rs25 billion net hydel profits of KPK.

However, Present government has not provided funds to KP province on NTP and FATA development. In addition he said that we have raised these issues during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided over by the Prime Minister but no action has been taken so far.

Miftah Ismail had also assured me that NHP running finances and funds for FATA districts would be announced in the budget speech but he did not do so. 

Jhagra said that he has written letters to the finance minister in the first week of July and later on August 26, 2022 in the background of conditions agreed for signing of MoU with regard to creating budget surplus for the ongoing fiscal year.

He added that it was agreed in the Sartaj Aziz Committee report that KP province would be given 3 per cent of NFC over and above the province share for FATA districts for a period of 10 years. 

Previous government of Imran khan had significantly increased federal share for FATA from Rs40 billion to over Rs100 billion for the development of FATA districts. 

He said that the federal finance minister has made a committee and is hopeful that issues of funds for FATA districts would be resolved within a month.

He hoped that an NFC meeting would be convened at earliest to resolve the issue of FATA districts besides NHP running finance should be given to the province. He said that the NHP MOU was signed between former Minister for Power Khawaja Asif and then Chief Minister KP Pervez Khattak back in 2016-17 on NHP payments.

The federal government which is now criticizing his letter for the province’s inability to create a budget surplus would later on use the same letter for getting adjustment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added.

Former finance minister Asad Umar said that Shaukat Tarin has done nothing wrong as he was giving advice to Mohsin Laghari and Taimur Saleem Jhagra.

Asad Umar said that during their government’s tenure, PML-N not only opposed the FATF law and voted against it to put Pakistan on the blacklist. 

He said that the approval of the State Bank Act law was a condition of the IMF program revival, but when in opposition they opposed and voted against the law in the National Assembly. He said that their stance was the country was being made subservient to the IMF and a new East Indian company in the form of SBP was being created. Now they are in power for the last four months but have not spoken against the SBP law.

A handout issued by the Finance ministry states that Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail held a meeting with Finance Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra at the Finance Division. 

The Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa briefed Finance Minister Miftah Ismail about the finances of newly merged districts. He also shared about the various reforms being undertaken in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

The Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue comprehensively addressed all the concerns and assured the Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of full support and cooperation.