Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has approved Rs 150 billion of oil and gas royalty for the Kohat division which would be utilize for developmental projects in the 2017-18 budget.

According to an official press release the chief minister chaired a high level meeting of oil and gas royalty of the districts including Karak, Hungo and Kohat at chief minister house here on Tuesday.

The statement said that the fund would be utilized for the social welfare of the division, on the occasion provincial law minister Imtiaz Shahid Qurashi, Member of Ziaullah Bangash, lawmaker Gul Saib Khan, secretary treasurer Shakeel Qadir and three commissioners of Kohat districts were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, the government of KP had constituted a task force to revise and update the policy on the consumption of 10% share in oil and gas royalty on a constituency basis in the districts. The team included a senior member of the board of revenue, secretary for finance and secretary for energy and power.

Moreover, oil producing districts were getting 5% share in royalty on oil and gas receivables from the federal government. However, the Petroleum Policy 2012 raised the royalty share in all oil and gas producing districts to 10%.

The chief minister in the meeting also stressed upon better infrastructure in the gas and oil producing districts of the south region and asked the department concerned to utilize the fund without any discrimination.

He said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s government has set the tradition of equal rights distribution and none of the region would face any kind of discretionary policy.

He said local people of Kohat division had the first right to utilize the funds generated from the gas and oil.