Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has expressed dislike over at-source deduction from provincial receipts by the federal government under national programme of provision of subsidized fertilizers and DAP for the farming community.Presiding over a meeting of the provincial cabinet at the Cabinet Room of Civil Secretariat Peshawar, he deplored that the federal government shifted the burden to the provinces.
Besides threadbare discussion on other agenda items, the cabinet also reviewed the matter of at-source deduction from the provincial receipts in the national fertilizers subsidy programme of the federal government."The federal government needs to take on board provincial government on any welfare or developmental programme," Khattak said lamenting that the real interest of the concerned sectors and segments of society were also ignored while launching such programmes by the central government.
The Chief Minister however approved the subsidy programme and at-source deduction from provincial funds with the condition that provincial governments would be compulsorily consulted in future in such matters of provincial and public interest so that norms of the Constitution and the provincial autonomy could not be harmed. He asked the concerned authorities to write to the federal government about the reservations of provincial government, in this regard.
It is pertinent to add that Rs 699 million have been deducted at-source from the provincial receipts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under this national programme of subsidy on fertilizers and DAP. The National Program for provision of subsidize urea etc have been focused on cotton and rice growing crops which are not the main crops of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but of Punjab and Sindh.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa farmers mainly grow wheat, maize, fruits and vegetables which would not be the beneficiary of this subsidize programme.Khattak with consent of his cabinet members approved supplementary grant of Rs 699 million subsidy at the rate of Rs 78 per bag of Rs 156 on urea fertilizers and Rs150 per bag of Rs300 on DAP that equalled to subsidy of Rs 429 million and Rs 270 million, respectively, on behalf of provincial government.
The KP Chief Minister however said that the farmer community as well as people of entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would greatly benefit from the subsidy programme of the federal government provided the provincial government or at least the agriculture department was consulted properly that would also have ensured the judicious and transparent use of the funds.
He also approved spending 10% funds of the hydel net profit on the affected areas of hydel power stations and dams including the Warsak Dam. He agreed with the cabinet that people must also realize the enormous benefits of such installations as compared to the hardships that brought along.He also called for evolving candid policy with introduction of internal audit in the government departments and expanding it to the districts. He emphasized on more transparency and acceptability of the policy.
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