30 April 2005	Saturday	20 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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PESHAWAR, April 29: Minister for Finance, Planning and Development Sirajul Haq has said that the NWFP and Balochistan will face budgetary imbalances during the next financial year if fresh attempts being made to formulate the next National Finance Commission (NFC) award fail.

Talking to newsmen here on Friday, the minister said that the next NFC award was vital for all the four provinces and any further delay would result in problems, especially, for the NWFP and Balochistan.

He, however, expressed optimism that the federating units would soon reach consensus viz-a-viz issues on which they had differences.

He claimed that except for Sindh, the other provinces had already developed consensus on various issues.

Sindh and Balochistan, he added, had been asked, during an informal session of the NFC held on Thursday last, to resolve their differences regarding distribution of gas development surcharge in a week’s time after which formal meeting of the commission would be held.

Expressing confidence in Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Mr Haq said that the premier would resolve a long pending issue of giving the new NFC award which was due in 2002.

“Since independence, India has given a total of 12 NFC awards whereas we have not been able, for the last several years, to finalize the sixth award,” said the provincial finance minister, adding: “It poses a big question mark.”

Replying to a question, he said that delay in the NFC award had crippling effect on the economies of all the federating units.

To an other question, he said that the provincial government had projected, under its current financial year’s budget, the provincial receipts of net hydel profit at Rs8 billion on the basis of a commitment made with the province by certain federal authorities.

“We are hopeful that the federal government would honour its commitment,” said the minister, adding: “Therefore it would be premature to say that the province would not announce its annual budget for the next financial year.”