ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Saturday the National Finance Commission (NFC) might not be able to finalize its sixth award in its next meeting on Friday, indicating that the task may be left for the future civilian government to accomplish.
Responding to questions at a ceremony marking the handover of the United Bank Limited to the UAE-UK consortium, he said the NFC meeting in Lahore would discuss various issues concerning the award in detail.
Asked when a final decision was expected, the minister said it would not be possible to finalize it at Friday’s meeting, which may be the last deliberation of the present NFC as new civilian cabinets at the Centre and in the provinces are expected to be formed by early next month.
President Pervez Musharraf has said he would hand over powers of the chief executive to a new prime minister by Nov 1 or thereabouts. The NFC includes the federal finance minister and four provincial finance ministers.
Mr Aziz said the Lahore meeting of the NFC would discuss various pending issues at length and make its recommendations.
The new NFC award will include distribution among the provinces about Rs50 billion, including their share in the 2.5 per cent General Sales Tax (GST) collected by the federal government, and fresh grants and subventions.
The federal government also agreed in principle to increase the revenue share of the provinces to 44.6 per cent from the present 37.5 per cent in the new NFC award.
On the other hand, senior officials in the ministry of finance hope to achieve consensus on a number of contentious issues plaguing the ongoing negotiations between the federal government and the provinces over the 6th NFC award, now overdue for a year.
The major issue of discord between the federal government and the three smaller provinces is the use of population-based formula for distribution of taxes from the federal divisible pool, which the three federating units oppose. The other point of disagreement is the sharing of overall income between the federal government and the provinces.
