ISLAMABAD: The Fiscal Coordination Committee (FCC) on Saturday approved the incentive grant for provinces as proposed by its sub-committee but asked for further refinement in consultation with the provinces.

In a meeting chaired by Finance Adviser Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, FCC considered the recommendations of FCC on public finance management reforms on incentive grant system to provinces under ‘Performance for Results Programme’.

The FCC is a forum constituted by the Council of Common Interests for the purpose of ensuring cooperation and coordination among the federating units on fiscal matters. The federal government will provide grants to provinces through the incentive grants system, subject to fulfilment of certain baselines in the public finance management and social sector developments, particularly health and education.

The meeting also reviewed the biannual implementation of the National Finance Commission Award for the period January-June 2018 and approved the report for presentation to the parliament and provincial assemblies.

Chief minister of Sindh, finance ministers of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and finance departments of provinces as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2019