November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

KARACHI, Nov 17: The business and investing community of the city extend full support to the Sindh proposed new criterion for the resource distribution under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, claimed president Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Siraj Kassam Teli.

The share of provinces in the net divisible pool be raised from 40 per cent to 45 per cent, without taking the component of GST distribution into consideration and the new ratio of distribution between federation and provinces be re-determined at 55:45 respectively, the KCCI president said in a statement.

He said the equitable and judicious distribution of resources among the centre and provinces was inevitable for their balanced socio-economic growth, provincial harmony and national integration.

He observed that the population continued to be the basic criterion of resource allocation and such key ingredients like revenue-generation capacity, size and development pattern of a province, remained non-cognizant to the deterrent of the interest of smaller provinces.

He elaborated that the disparity in the formula could be evidenced from the fact that the Sindh province contributed around 68 per cent in the divisible pool and received only 23 per cent in return thereof. Likewise, the level of poverty in the country is within the vicinity of 30 per cent, but in the province of Sindh, it ranges between 45 to 50 per cent.

He pointed out that the growth of population in the country was around 2.5 per cent, but that of Karachi was more than 5 per cent, because of continued flow of migrants from other parts of the country as well as from neighbouring countries, thus putting extra pressure on the resources of the province.

“When Balochistan and NWFP are made eligible for royalty from the gas field and hydro-electricity, respectively, why not Sindh be given royalty for the use of Karachi Port by all provinces”, he enquired. He suggested that the possibility of re-provincialization of sales tax be examined.

He said that sales tax used to be the provincial subject just after the independence of Pakistan and must, therefore, be restored to the provinces, to ensure the judicious distribution of taxes.