KP facing economic crisis owing to Centre’s animosity: MPA

HARIPUR: Former provincial minister and MPA Akbar Ayub Khan on Saturday said that the federal government had not paid a single penny to the provincial government on account of Net Hydel Profit owing to which Mahmood Khan’s led setup was facing the worst economic crisis.

“And development process in the province has come to halt and it was unable to pay monthly salaries to its employees,” he told journalists during a visit to Haripur Press Club where he came to facilitate the new office-bearers.

He said that the federal government had deliberately stopped the payment of Rs60 billion from the NHP to the KP province which had resultantly exposed the province to the worst economic crisis.

He claimed that the people of the province were bearing the brunt of the political vendetta that the Centre had unleashed against the KP government.

“A major cut of 35percent in the new development budget has brought the developmental projects to the standstill,” he asid, adding, the provincial government had been pushed to the wall in such a way that it was unable to disburse salaries to its employees.

He said that a sudden and ill-planned increase in the property tax from 4percent to 15 percent had burdened the construction industry, the biggest employment offering industry.

He said that the property tax was the purely provincial subject and collection of revenue from that head was the right of local governments.

He said that despite all crises, the provincial government gave a subsidy of Rs35 billion on wheat flour and was spending Rs30 billion on providing healthcare to the people through Sehat Card.

“It’s an undeniable proof of the sincerity of the PTI’s government that is, against all odds, striving to extend every possible help to the inflation-hit people of the province,” he claimed.