Islamabad:
The question of the National Finance Commission (NFC) has resurfaced, the Senatorial Finance Committee should convene a meeting next week to respond to provincial concerns concerning the distribution of resources, sources revealed.
According to sources, the Committee has decided to convene ministers funded from the four provinces to discuss the grievances linked to the NFC price. This decision comes in the midst of increasing tensions between federal and provincial governments on the distribution of funds and delay in a new NFC formula.
Sources have argued that the federal government is reluctant to provide funds to the services that have been devoted to the provinces. The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), in particular, has raised concerns, declaring that its population has increased considerably as a result of the merger of the former Fata districts, but this demographic change was not reflected in the allocation of resources.
The chief minister of KP, Ali Amin Gandapur, would have written a letter to the president, expressing his concern concerning the exclusion of the province on a fair part of the NFC price due to exceeded demographic data.
The KP government has adopted the position according to which under the NFC, an equitable distribution of resources every five years, was a constitutional requirement. However, the current NFC formula, created in 2009, has been extended in the past 15 years without significant revisions.
As part of the existing NFC price, 57.5% of divisible resources are allocated to the provinces, while the federal government retains 42.5%.
