28 June 2004	Monday	09 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, June 27: The Sindh assembly on Sunday concluded general discussion on budget during which conflicting views on the NFC Award were echoed.

While the opposition leader in the house, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, continued to accuse the government of betraying Sindh on the issue of the NFC Award, the Finance Minister, Syed Sardar Ahmed, kept on insisting that the provincial government had adopted a principled stand by opposing population formula for resource distribution.

Mr Khuhro contended that unless there were adequate resources, no development would take place and no budget would be meaningful.

In an apparent reference to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's ultimatum to the government, he asked: "Why they are silent over Rs1 billion allocation for the Greater Thal Canal in the federal budget?"

Responding to Irfanullah Marwat's claim, who on Saturday had challenged Syed Murad Ali Shah's premise that the province had suffered Rs271 billion loss due to the government's failure in getting the NFC Award approved in accordance with the assembly's unanimous adopted resolution, Mr Khuhro pointed out that the total federal revenue stood at Rs796 billion.

According to the Sindh assembly's resolution, the federal government was supposed to deduct five per cent as 'collection charges' and allocate three per cent to the NWFP and two per cent to Balochistan as subvention, he added.

This leaves the federal government with Rs716 billion. Now total collection from Sindh, as per previous records (62 per cent) would be Rs448 billion. Mr Khuhro said that out of this amount, Sindh was supposed to give to the federal government its share, based on population, which would be about Rs93 billion. So Sindh would be left with Rs355 billion. But now Sindh was getting a meagre 84 billion, suffering a net loss of Rs271 billion, he pointed out.

The opposition leader regretted that the government had failed to get this assembly's resolution accepted together with the ratio of 80:20 from the divisible pool.

To the members' surprise, Mr Khuhro recited some very apt verses of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Minister Rauf Siddiqui to embarrass the government and claimed that during the past three years, a loss of as much as Rs98 billion was caused.

Referring to the criticism of the 1974 NFC Award by Mr Marwat, the opposition leader claimed that the minister had perhaps not read the whole document.

He reminded the minister of the conditions at that time when half of the country was lost and the national morale was at its lowest. For more provincial harmony, he recalled, the (PPP) government at the Centre had asked the Sindh government, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi being the chief minister, to give sacrifice for a period of five years. Sindhis, as always, agreed for better harmony among the provinces, he added.

Mr Khuhro said that even if the NFC Award signed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was implemented, Sindh would have got an additional Rs69 billion. He claimed that provincial share in the total revenue was at 80 per cent and Sindh would have received 24 per cent of the amount i.e. Rs153 billion as against the present government's receipt of Rs84 billion.

Mr Khuhro said that despite a sizable revenue collection, Sindh was being made to stroll with begging bowl to fund its development projects and meet other requirements. As compared to that, he added, the Punjab had presented a Rs40 billion surplus budget and had announced financing of its ADP to the tune of Rs38 billion.

The opposition leader told the house that Sindh collected Rs2billion less than the target set for tax collection and an equivalent amount was also short in state transfers.

Referring to shortage of water in the province, he called for subsidy to be extended to farmers and also providing them electricity free of cost. Due to precarious law and order situation, foreign project assistance of Rs2.5 billion stood less, at Rs1.75 billion.

Mr Khuhro mentioned that there were 11 bomb blasts in a year, besides 1,584 murders, 466 suicides and 310 kidnappings.

Winding up the debate, Finance Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed proposed that a budget monitoring and planning committee, with members from both sides of the divide, be constituted.

Responding to the opposition's contentions, he said that its apprehensions about the NFC Award and, in this context, the provincial government's inability to pursue Sindh's case were not correct.

He categorically stated that the government had not compromised pm Sindh's interests. In fact, he added, the government had adopted a principled stand to protect the interests.

The minister claimed that the NWFP had opposed Sindh's formula, i.e. distribution based on revenue receipts, while Punjab was adamant on retaining the formula based on population.

"I had told the then chief minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Maher that I would prefer to step down rather than giving in to the pressures and accepting the population-based formula," he added.

The minister informed the house that after July, the next session of NFC would be held to iron out differences. He assured the house that this position would be maintained till the acceptance of Sindh's demand.

With regard to the criticism over deficit financing by the government, Mr Ahmed said it was an acceptable practice if kept within certain limit. "Heavens would not fall due to a shortfall of Rs4 billion in the estimated revenue of Rs104 billion in the next budget," he remarked.

He recounted various measures to overcome the problems, saying that efforts were being made to recover Rs9 billion from the DHA for the government land the Authority had reclaimed along the coast. Similarly, he added, an amount of Rs3 billion was outstanding against the OGDC.

The minister also refuted the opposition's claim that the budget was anti-people. Citing support for the budget from majority in the house, he declared that it was 'people-friendly'.

The assembly approved Rs17 billion additional demands for grant and supplementary expenditure for the year 2003-04 and rejected 89 cut motions moved by the opposition.

The house was in session till filing of this report.

Earlier, MMA's Hameedullah Khan advocate castigated the government for not allowing Maulana Fazlur Rahman to enter into Sindh and for arresting many MMA leaders.