QUETTA: A senior economist and representative of the Balochistan government in the National Finance Commission (NFC) has said he does not see the 9th NFC Award materialising in the near future as provinces are reluctant to contribute seven per cent National Security Fund that the federal government is demanding.

Speaking at the third consultative session on the NFC Award that was held on Tuesday at Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), Quetta, he said this demand of the federal government was the main obstacle in the progress of talks on the NFC.

Dr Kaiser Bengali encouraged the discussion of new ideas and strategies and proposed that distribution mechanisms such as the inverse of the area under cultivation could be considered as criteria for determining the horizontal distribution of finances between the provinces.

Jahangir Khan Achakzai, another economist of the University of Balochistan, opined that it was very unfortunate that Balochistan was being asked to contribute towards this federal fund for CPEC security.

He said Balochistan already had a lesser amount of share in the horizontal distribution of funds. He endorsed the idea that was floated in the first two consultative sessions on the NFC organised by the prime institute, that social indicators should be introduced as a criterion for the division of funds among the prov­inces.

Sana Durrani, the Balochistan member of the National Commission on the Status of Women, said that entrepreneurship and private enterprise needed to be strengthened to increase tax collection.

She said there was a need to formalise the informal economy so that Balochistan could enhance its own revenue generation.

Prof Abdul Salam, Dean of the School of Management Sciences at BUITEMS, stressed that it was now common knowledge that Balochistan had enough natural resources that they alone could be used to provide for the whole of the country. But he also observed that in order to exploit those minerals and natural resources, the provincial government required finances.

Another speaker, Dr Lodhi said that population was indeed an important criterion for the distribution of finances among provinces but other factors such as underdevelopment and poverty were also important.

Representing the Finance Department of the Balochistan government, additional secretary Wajihullah Kundi pointed out that the expenditure responsibilities of the provincial government had increased significantly after the passage of 18th Amendment in the Constitution. He said the provincial government now had to bear the expenses of a number of departments that were previously under the federal government.

He said in terms of area, Balochistan was the largest province of Pakistan but its Annual Development Budget of Rs 71 billion was but a small fraction of Punjab.

Speakers observed that the federal government had not provided funds after devolution of powers and departments to Balochistan, which had been allocated for the said departments by Islamabad that increased the expenditure of the Balochistan government.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2017