Business
KP struggling under Rs. 265 billion loans
Peshawar: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government owes a staggering amount of Rs. 265 billion to international financial organisations including World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Under the rule of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) since the past seven and a half years, the province has been steadily taking loans which now amount to the astronomical sum of Rs. 265 billion. According to official documents, Rs. 164 billion loans were taken out during 2019-2020 fiscal year. Of this amount, Rs. 144 billion were taken from World Bank.
A total of Rs. 72 billion was kept aside for energy projects.
BRT Peshawar was given almost Rs. 50 billion procured through loans from Asian Development Bank. Over Rs. 11 billion were used for tourism project, Rs. 28 billion for agricultural projects while Rs. 18 billion were given to Public Resource Management Program of the Treasury Department and Rs. 12 billion were taken out through loans for KP Economic Corridor.
A road constructed between Swabi and Mardan cost Rs. 12 billion. The KP government also kept aside Rs. 0.83 billion for Corona under the Health Ministry. Loan agreements worth Rs. 1.12 billion were signed for development projects for various cities in the province.
Going further back, between 2017-18, more than Rs. 52.7 billion were procured through loans for agriculture, power and energy, transport and water sectors.
In the fiscal year 2016-17, loans worth Rs. 9.12 billion were signed between World Bank and Asian Development Bank among other financial institutions, and the provincial government. In 2015-16 a total of Rs. 5.22 billion loans were sanctioned for building roads and highways, mass transit and energy projects.
In 2014-15 financial aid from DFID was among the Rs. 9 billion that the provincial government received while in 2013-14, Rs. 4.8 billion were procured through International loans.