The federal government and federating units are likely to agree on evolving a multiple-factors criteria in place of population based distribution of national resources. This was announced by Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin while briefing the media after chairing a meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC), here at the Governor's House on Thursday.
Finance Ministers of three provinces and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who holds the portfolio of finance in his province, were also present at the news briefing. Shaukat Tarin said the commission had completed discussions on the vertical and horizontal distribution of resources in a very accommodative environment, adding that federating units presented their stances.
He said the provinces had agreed to the distribution of resources on multiple criterions like population, poverty, revenue generation, area, backwardness etc. "Every province has its own criteria, but we will develop consensual criteria about the distribution of resources," he explained. "Currently the provinces get the 49 percent from divisible pool, while the federation is getting 51 percent," he added.
He acknowledged that the NWFP government aggressively pleaded its case in the meeting. The Punjab had shown flexibility over multi-factors criteria, he added. "We have completed our job, now the technical committees of the NFC would further thrash out the fiscal matters to reach a logical end," he remarked. He declared in clear terms that the next NFC award would be evolved shortly, saying that he did not see problem in evolving a consensus award.
The next meetings of the NFC would be held in Karachi on November 18 and 19, he announced. To a question about the payment of net hydel profit to the NWFP, the finance minister said, the prime minister would give good news to this effect when he would visit the provincial capital on October 30 (Friday). The meeting also agreed to take into consideration the war damages, while distributing the resources and referred to the case of the frontier province which was massively hit by the war on terror.
The federal government, he said, with an open heart reduced its distribution proposals from six to three in order to accommodate the viewpoints of provinces. Shaukat Tarin said the meeting thoroughly debated the vertical and horizontal aspects of the federal divisible pool and ended up the two days discussion in one day due to accommodative atmosphere in the meeting.
He said the meeting observed that the federation and provinces would have to gear up resources to meet their growing fiscal needs, and added that the meeting decided to hand over the collection of the Capital Value Tax to the provinces in the next award so that their revenue sources could be enhanced.
He maintained that the federation believed the country could not prosper sans strong provinces and in this spirit "we are trying to accommodate all the genuine demands of the provinces." He said the provinces would get their rights as enshrined in the Constitution.
The NFC meeting also strongly condemned the Peshawar blast and described it an act of cowardice. "Despite the unrest in the NWFP, we did not postpone the meeting in order to pass on message to militants that such barbaric incidents could not deter the government's resolve of peace and tranquillity. We equally share our grief and sorrow with the people of Peshawar and we are standing behind them in this hour of tragedy," he added.
The finance minister held out categorical assurance that the federal government would fully support the CRBC project when it would be floated in the Ecnec meeting. In response to a question, he said the NWFP government would receive its share of aid in the wake of Kerry-Lugar bill (Enhancement of Partnership with Pakistan Act 2009).