KARACHI, Feb 20: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad has said that there is a possibility that the share of Sindh in the divisible pool will be raised adequately as the federal government has accepted Sindh's point of view.

He said there was a pressing need for change in the criterion determining the National Finance Commission award to the provinces and Sindh had already pleaded for increase in its share.

Addressing a dinner reception of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, the governor said total tax revenue of the government was estimated at Rs460 billion from the last fiscal's Rs410 billion. Thus, the amount of the divisible pool will also rise upward, making the provinces also beneficiary.

On KCCI's suggestion for a change in the country's fiscal structure specially in sales tax or motor vehicle tax, Mr Ibad said it was a very complicated issue and entailed an in-depth study and called for consensus of the three provincial governments.

The governor said that Sindh had undertaken a programme of industrial estates/parks, etc., particularly for the development of small and cottage industries.

On infrastructure developments, he said some of the projects, under a special Rs29 billion uplift package focussing civic infrastructures, would be completed in one year while others in two to three years.

"The Karachi Mass Transit Project is underway, and I have given a go ahead signal for revival of the Karachi Circular Railway," the governor added. Earlier, KCCI President Siraj Kassam Teli said the new distribution criteria under the NFC award must have linkages with the revenue generation, population, backwardness and size of the province to tackle the problems of poverty and unemployment.

He said when the provinces were made eligible for royalty for gas fields and hydro electricity, why not Sindh be given royalty for the use of its port by all the other provinces. Sindh's share to the national kitty is over 68 per cent, but it does not get proper share.