New KP govt inherits a vibrant hydel uplift fund
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government has inherited over Rs25 billion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s hydel development fund that aims at developing small hydel power generation units in the provincial public sector.
Officials told Dawn that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s hydel development fund had ‘a good amount of money’ for the new government to finance some of the small hydel development projects that would be ready for implementation in the near future.
“Though the hydel development fund does not have the amount of money that should have been there given the financial resources the previous government could have invested in to grow it further, the fund situation is reasonably good to finance small hydel power units that would shortly be ready for execution,” said a well placed finance manager.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw its hydel development funds swelled to the existing proportions mainly after the last two of its elected governments pursued a policy of investing money into it with an aim to build it up to finance the construction of small hydel power units in the province.
The implementation of the investment policy, said an official, had brought the province to position to finance a couple of small hydel power units that would shortly be ready for implementation.
“The last two elected provincial governments pursued the policy that was put in place in 2001 by the unelected government led by Lt-Gen Iftikhar Hussain Shah,” said a senior official.
Created in 1992 with an initial investment of Rs50 million, the fund aims at tapping Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s hydel power potential and improving the provincial government’s income by selling electricity to the national grid. Later, in 2001, the then unelected provincial government gave legal cover to the fund by promulgating Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Fund Ordinance 2001.
In accordance with its current financial year’s budget, the province plans to invest Rs2 billion in the hydel development. The latest investment combined with annual profit accrued this year over the investments in commercial banks’ schemes and treasury bills would take the total size of the hydel funds well past Rs25 billion mark.
This money, according to officials, should be sufficient to finance some of the projects for at least two to three years once they would become ready for implementation. The province has, at least, five projects that are passing through different planning stages.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said an official, would build in the public sector a 36MW hydel power station at Daral Khwar with an estimated cost of over Rs7 billion. Launched in 2012, the project upon completion would generate an annual profit of Rs1 billion for the provincial government.
Similarly, the provincial hydel development fund, said an official, would also be utilised to execute an 84MW power generation unit at Matiltan in Swat.
The previous provincial government had put in place an ‘Action Plan 2011-2005’ to construct eight small hydel power stations in the public sector, including Lawi hydel power unit, Shogo Sin power plant, Matiltan hydel station, Sharmai power unit, Shushai-Zhendoli power unit, Jabori hydel power station, Koto hydel power plant, and Karora hydel power plant.
Officials, however, said the provincial hydel development fund could have much stronger than its existing financial health. The province received Rs85 billion on account of hydel profit arrears from the previous federal government under an agreement that upholds Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Rs110 billion claim against Water and Power Development Authority.
“The money transferred to the province during the past four years should have been diverted to the provincial hydel development fund, but the previous government diverted only a meager amount to the fund, using major chunk of the money to finance its annual expenditure budget,” said an official.
An amount of Rs25 billion, of the Rs110 billion hydel profit arrears, is due against the federal government in the next financial year.
A senior government functionary said the new federal government was bound to pay the remaining Rs25 billion to the province in fulfillment of a sovereign agreement signed by its predecessor.
He expressed the hope the new government would honor the commitment and released the funds in time as had been the case until now.
Officials said the hydel development fund provided a window of opportunity to the PTI-led provincial government to make a sound start on implementing its election manifesto’s economic program.
PTI’s election manifesto promises to develop energy sector as a solution to end energy crisis.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Organisation (PHYDO), a provincial sector entity, is, at present, operating four hydel power stations with a total installed capacity of 105MW, including 81MW Malakand III hydel power unit, 18MW Pehur hydel power unit, 4.2MW Reshun hydel power unit, and 1.8MW Shishi hydel power unit.
New KP govt inherits a vibrant hydel uplift fund - DAWN.COM
lucky !
...then he exaplained this claim.
