ISLAMABAD, March 7: An amount of Rs616 billion has been released to the provinces under the National Finance Commission (NFC) from 1999 to February 2003.

According to a written reply in the National Assembly on Friday from adviser to the prime minister on economic affairs, Shaukat Aziz, out of Rs616bn, Rs295.9bn was provided to Punjab from 1999 to February 2003, Rs169.2bn to Sindh, Rs78.4bn to NWFP and Rs72.4bn to Balochistan during the same period.

The adviser’s statement was in response to a question asked by Pir Syed Fazal Ali Shah Jilani.

Responding to a question from Shabir Ahmed Khan, the minister said that the government had collected a total revenue of Rs20.7bn from cigarette manufacturing units during July 1998 to June 2002.

Of this amount Rs16.8bn was collected under the head of central excise duty, Rs3.9bn from sales tax and Rs11bn in income tax from 1998 to 2002.

The minister said that during 1998 to 2002, 33 cigarette manufacturing units were registered in NWFP, including FATA, but only 25 units remained operative.

At present, 12 cigarette manufacturing units were in operation while 13 were closed or only intermittently operational between 1998 to 2002.