Says that if the target is not achieved, Sindh will contribute to the Center from its own resources
Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari speaks during the inauguration of the new Outpatient Department (OPD) block of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). Photo: Express
Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has urged the federal government to delegate greater fiscal responsibilities to provinces, insisting that provincial governments – particularly Sindh – could collect more taxes than the targets assigned to the Center if they were empowered to do so.
According to Express News, Bilawal made the comments during the inauguration of a newly constructed technologically advanced OPD block at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi on Friday.
Addressing the ceremony, he criticized some federal ministers who he said are seeking to overturn the powers and financial autonomy granted to provinces after the 18th Amendment by citing the current economic crisis. These challenges, he stressed, “belong to everyone” and should not be used as a pretext to undermine the rights of the provinces.
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He said if the Center delegates greater responsibilities to the provinces, they will be able to fulfill them effectively. “The people of Sindh are patriotic Pakistanis who want to contribute more to the country and have the capacity to do so,” he added.
Referring to the sales tax on services – initially collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) before being transferred under the 18th Amendment – Bilawal noted that Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa continued to surpass previous FBR records after the transfer of authority to the provinces. According to him, this performance shows that the provinces “can not only collect taxes more efficiently than the federal government, but can also help ease the financial burden on the Centre”.
اٹھارویں ترمیم کے بعد سیلز ٹیکس آن سروسز کی وصولی میں صوبوں نے وفاقی ریکارڈ توڑ دیئے ہیں۔ سندھ، بلوچستان اور خیبرپختونخوا نے ثابت کر دیا کہ صوبے نہ صرف وصولی کر سکتے ہیں There are many people who need help to make sure they are safe@BBhuttoZardari #NICVD… pic.twitter.com/0n9mKJ87iG
– PPP (@MediaCellPPP) December 5, 2025
Reiterating his offer to the federal government, Bilawal said the PPP-led Sindh government was ready to collect additional taxes on behalf of the Centre. He said if allowed to collect general sales tax and given a target, Sindh would achieve it and transfer the entire amount to Islamabad.
“If the target is not achieved, Sindh will even contribute its own share to help reduce the financial challenges of the federal government,” he said, adding that any amount collected beyond the target would be spent on the people of Sindh.
Bilawal said the economic crisis showed that federal institutions were struggling to meet their responsibilities.
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He also commended the NICVD for providing free and world-class cardiac care, saying the institution had gained global recognition, noting that critics of the 18th Amendment and provincial financial autonomy often ignored the performance of public sector institutions such as the NICVD, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH).
He said the PPP, in line with its manifesto, continued to provide modern and free medical facilities to the people at their doorsteps. Bilawal added that NICVD had become the largest completely free cardiac treatment network in the world, calling its success the strongest response to those who considered the 18th Amendment or provincial autonomy a mistake.
