PESHAWAR, Aug 30: The fuel station run by the NWFP Benevolent Fund is in financial crisis owing to irregular payments by various government departments and agencies, an official has told Dawn.

The sole fuel station run by the provincial government has Rs18.19 million in unpaid bills against different departments, in addition to Rs2.9 million in outstanding deposits against 540 vehicles.

An official of the finance department explained that most of the government departments and organisations did not make timely payments to the fuel station, taking the cumulative arrears to Rs18.19 million by June 30.

He said that every government department was supposed to deposit Rs5,000 per vehicle as “caution money” to avail of the credit facility from the filling station under a policy notified in 2002. But, according to the official, “caution money” had not been deposited in respect of 540 vehicles availing of the facility, creating a net liability of Rs2.9 million.

The official explained that the Benevolent Fund makes cash payments for the procurement of POL and lubricants to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on a daily basis and it receives hardly 20 per cent of the revenue from private vehicles, the remaining 80 per cent of the clients being government departments availing of the credit facility.

“As a result of non-payment of arrears, a huge investment of the Board is stuck up, making it difficult to ensure smooth POL supplies,” the officials quoted a letter sent to the finance department by the Benevolent Fund Cell as saying.

The Benevolent Fund Cell, in view of the prevailing state of payments by the departments, has asked the finance department to sanction and release requisite funds to all the departments and agencies, enabling them to deposit the “caution money” against their vehicles.

Moreover, it also suggested “at-source” deduction from the relevant budget to the Benevolent Fund Board against POL arrears owed by the defaulting departments.

The finance department has also been asked to place an amount of at least Rs25 million at the disposal of the Benevolent Fund Cell, which could be used as a revolving fund for underwriting outstanding POL liabilities of government departments and facilitate regular procurement of POL from the PSO on cash payments for onward supply, the official maintained.

The official said that in line with the said correspondence, the finance department has sent a circular to all the administrative heads of the departments to clear their outstanding dues in line with their budget provisions for the fiscal year 2007-08.