In a statement issued to the media, the Parliamentary Secretary for Forests, Dilshad Bano has said that due to the federal government’s non-disbursement of funds to Gilgit-Baltistan, the financial difficulties in the province have increased many fold. It is for the first time that G-B government presented a deficit budget of Rs.10 million.
According to the statement, G-B is getting funds amounting to Rs. 47 billion out of which Rs. 41 billion are given as salaries. G-B should have received 30 billion rupees in the form of ADP, but the central government reduced it to only Rs.18 billion.
According to Bano, the central government has reduced the wheat subsidy given to G-B forcing the local people to suffer. Five years ago, Rs.14 billion were given in terms of wheat subsidy but the present government is cheating people through promises of disbursing Rs. 9 billion which is musch less than the previous given subsidy.
In he statement, she further says that development projects in Gilgit-Baltistan are being affected due to the reduction in the budget including important projects in the power sector.
