18 January 2005	Tuesday	07 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 17: The Pakistan People's Party on Monday slammed the government for its failure in fulfilling its responsibilities with regard to the National Finance Commission (NFC) , honouring its commitment about the MPAs' development fund, and maintaining law and order.

Leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro and the opposition's Spokesperson on finance Ms Shazia Marri, at a press conference, criticized the government for not releasing Rs800 million funds meant for the MPAs' development schemes.

Ms Marri referred to the alleged dichotomy in the government's pronouncements and acts owing to which, she said, Sindh was facing growing deficit. She dealt mainly with the NFC, Sindh budget and mismanagement of finances.

"The government thinks that the only way leading to economic prosperity is to increase taxes, while masses have no means to earn due to absence of job opportunities and thus they cannot return," she contended.

Focusing her arguments on the government's performance with regard to the NFC, Ms Marri claimed: "Sindh is the worst-affected among the provinces by the 1997 NFC Award as under this unfair award all taxes were included in the divisible pool and the provincial share was reduced to 37.5 per cent.''

Ms Marri reiterated the PPP stand that population alone should not be the criterion for NFC Award but the factors like collection efforts, underdeveloped infrastructure and geographical difficulties should also be taken into consideration. Referring to alleged financial mismanagement and anomalies in the Sindh budget 2004-05, she proposed that non-developmental spending be curtailed.

"Sindh spends 70 per cent more on administration than Punjab, standing closer is Balochistan which, unlike Sindh, has larger area and lesser population and is hard to administer," she pointed out, alleging that the government had failed to plug the existing leakages in revenue collection process. She also opposed indirect taxes which, she said, had burdened the poor more than anything else.

She made mention of the World Bank report on Sindh Fiscal Resource Study which said that "the magnitude of the variation so soon after the Award, and the absence of any contingent arrangements in the Award, were serious shortcomings of the NFC.''

The PPP, therefore, demands that vertical disparity be minimized; sales tax, which internationally is a local tax, should be collected and kept by provinces; horizontal sharing be made fair; and population alone should not be made the criteria.

The PPP leader stressed the need for pre-budget public surveys for ascertaining public views and said parliamentarians be given a say in taxation. She also called for continued monitoring of public accounts by the charged expenditure and public accounts committee, consisting elected representatives, and said that it should be a perennial body. She observed that since no public safety commission existed in the province, there was no way to keep a check on police in a law and order situation.