3 1/2 years: government borrowed Rs 41 billion from SBP on annual basis

The government borrowed Rs 41 billion from State Bank of Pakistan on annual basis on average during the last three-and-a-half years. Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan informed this to National Assembly on Friday during the question hour. He said the borrowing from the SBP is not excessive and it may not hamper structural reforms of the country.
He also informed the house that government borrowings from State Bank of Pakistan during the fiscal year 2013-14 were Rs 159.7 billion. However, the government retired SBP borrowings of Rs 434.3 billion and Rs 475 billion during fiscal year 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal informed the house that during the current financial year as on February 23, 2017, the total funds amounting to Rs 430 billion have been released, including Rs 311 billion against rupee allocation and Rs 119 billion, as foreign aid out of total PSDP allocation of Rs 800 billion.
Foreign aid component is directly disbursed by the donor agencies to respective projects which are compiled and reported by Economic Affairs Division, he said, adding that foreign disbursement and report usually has a lag of 4 to 6 weeks. The minister said the funds are being released on demand, on quarterly basis as per release strategy approved by Finance Division ie 20 per cent each in first and second quarters and 30 per cent each in third and fourth quarters.
Funds under the federal PSDP are not distributed among the provinces under any formula as in case of NFC Award but are allocated to the development projects/ programmes keeping in view the development needs in the particular area/province proposed and implemented by the line ministries/ divisions/ provinces as per assigned respective rules of business, he said.
In certain cases, projects such as electricity generation and transmission, water reservoirs, railways especially rolling stock, motorways and highways, seaports and airports, science and information technology, governance can''t be bifurcated among/ between provinces, he said, adding that therefore, it is difficult to give provincial break-up of PSDP funded projects.
Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla informed the house that a total of 1,554 terrorists have been arrested in 2016. Out of these, 799 were arrested from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 418 from Punjab, 178 from Sindh, 40 from Balochistan and rest of them from Islamabad Capital Territory, FATA, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, he said. He also informed the house that official/gratis passports were issued to 2002 non-entitled persons prior to June 2013. These passports were cancelled and made inactive under the present government on the instructions of the minister of interior, he said, adding the issuance of official/gratis passports is strictly restricted to the laid down policy.