Islamabad:
A few days before the first session of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) required a change in the resource distribution formula between the four federative units by considerably reducing the share of the population and including the references of the forest and prosperity.
Up to 82% of the resources are distributed between the provinces on the basis of the population and 10.6% on the basis of the delay, which must be modified, said the Minister of Finance of KP Muzzammil Aslam this weekend.
He spoke during a seminar organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) of Pakistan of the Pakistan Prosper platform. He added that the provincial government would require changes in the formula of the distribution of horizontal resources between the federative units of the NFC forum.
“The provincial government will seek to reduce the share of the population and to the inclusion of the forest as an important reference,” said Aslam. His declaration occurred two days after the president formed the 11th NFC and a few days before the first planned session of the Constitutional Convention.
Federal Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb would chair the meeting.
Aslam’s opinions on the reduction in the share of the population are similar to those expressed by the Minister of Planning Ahsan Iqbal. The Minister of Planning proposed to freeze the number of people to 241.5 million for the purposes of the NFC Award and to reduce the share to 60%.
Iqbal also proposed to include changes in forest and climate as a resource distribution criteria between the provinces. Climate change also causes sudden floods and there is a request to cancel part of the non -distributed federal divisible swimming pool for the construction of large dams.
Mian Anjum Nisar, former president of the FPCCI, said that large dams were also necessary for agricultural water storage facilities and that agriculture is a provincial subject, the four provinces should contribute funds as part of the new NFC prize.
The NFC was set up to evolve a consensus on the vertical and horizontal distribution of financial resources. According to the vertical formula, the provinces obtain 57.5% of the shares and the rest goes to the federal government.
After paying provincial actions under the NFC, the remaining income is not even sufficient to meet two most important expenses, debt and defense.
The two -day FPCCI conference was organized by the KP Peshawar regional office in collaboration with the KP Board of Investment and Trade with other stakeholders. The Prosper Pakistan team, led by Hiba Fawad and Aun Ali Syed, organized this conference by which room representatives from across the country participated.
Aslam said that he did not yet know if the NFC price would be a continuation of the 7th NFC Prize or that a new debate would start on the distribution of resources under the 11th NFC Prize.
He said there were 12 hydroelectric projects underway in the province to generate cheaper electricity at 8 cents per unit. However, the government has increased wheel charges to Rs27 per unit in order to block the cheapest of electricity in the province, he said.
He said the Industes River System Authority (IRSA) had distributed 110 MAF of water among the provinces, and it was agreed that four channels would be built, but the left bank was not built.
In 2009, at the time of the 7th finalization of the NFC Prize, the federal government had promised to finance the left bank channel project, but the promise remains unsatisfied
The KP Minister of Finance cited Ahsan Iqbal saying that the federal government was heading for the economic collapse over five years because the national chat was empty and the federal development budget was lower than Punjab and Sindh.
However, one of the reasons for low -income and high budget deficits is that the FBR has not increased its tax / GDP ratio to 15% by 2015. The FBR tax ratio is still 10.2%.
The government has made bizarre decisions. He gave three accusations to a member of the FBR, Hamid Atiq Sarwar. Hamid is a strategic transformation of members, a member of interior income operations and an actual manager of Pakistan Automation Limited, which is purely a technical job.
Muzammal Aslam said the National Highway Authority (NHA) had been used to undertake road development projects in the larger provinces of Punjab and Sindh and ignored the KP of the federal government and Balutchistan.
The imbalance in the development approach worsened the situation in the small provinces, he added. He criticized the federal government for claiming deforestation in the province and said the KP government increased its budget to 45% of Pakistan forests in KP.
