Provinces fail to reach consensus: NFC meeting today
By Nasir Jamal
LAHORE, Dec 12: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz will preside over the second meeting of the National Finance Commission here on Saturday.
Four provincial finance ministers, who met here on Friday to informally discuss the basis and criteria for distribution of resources between the provinces, are prominent among those who will participate in the meeting.
The provinces will present projections of the expenditure over the next five years and the federal government is going to inform the provinces of its resource position and its own requirements.
Provinces have been demanding a substantial increase in their share from the divisible pool in view of the rising poverty levels. President Gen Pervez Musharraf assured a press conference at Quetta on Thursday that the provinces’ share would be raised in the next NFC award.
The provincial ministers are understood to have failed to evolve a consensus on the formula for resource-sharing.
Punjab wants population of provinces to be the “sole basis for distributing resources, while others demand that it should also include such factors as revenue collection, backwardness, and area.
Officials said the ministers agreed to jointly press the federal government for enhancing the provincial share in the net proceeds of the divisible pool.
Jehangir Tareen, adviser to the Punjab chief minister, told this correspondent that the “meeting did not discuss resource distribution formula”.
“It was a confidence building exercise,” he said. “The meeting was held in a congenial atmosphere. Provinces have adopted a step-by-step approach to tackle all the issues, and agreed to move ahead with consensus.”
NWFP Finance Minister Sirajul Haq told reporters before going into the meeting that the provinces would have candid discussions on all the issues.
Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah was hopeful that the ministerial meeting would find a way to move ahead with consensus.
The first meeting of the reconstituted NFC was held in Islamabad on Nov 18.
