KARACHI, May 8: The Sindh Finance Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad said on Saturday that population growth would become main incentive for Sindh and other provinces if the current National Finance Commission decided to declare population as the only factor for distribution of resources among provinces.

Population growth rate, he told a pre-budget seminar, had been effectively curbed in India, Bangladesh and China but not in Pakistan where population remained the single criterion for distribution of resources among the provinces.

The seminar was organized by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan. He informed the participants that Sindh contributed the largest share in federal taxes because "there is a tax culture in Sindh and there is no tax culture in other provinces."

He urged the Central Board of Revenue to be transparent and publish data of tax collection regularly and periodically showing how much tax had been collected from each of the four provinces.

The Sindh Finance Minister conceded that there was a serious law and order problem which was impeding investment in the province. He attributed growing lawlessness to the political developments in neighbouring countries and a world-wide trend of terrorism.

The law and order problem eats up substantial amount of resource leaving very little space in the provincial budget for development of social sectors, he said.

He urged the industrialists to take advantage of the liquidity of the banks and availability of credits at low rates and on easy terms and invest in meaningful and productive avenues rather than in real estate and stock shares.

Syed Sardar Ahmad said that Asian Development Bank had provided $100 million loan to Sindh government. Of this amount, he said Rs4 billion would be utilized to pay back federal government loan to reduce the burden of debt servicing and create enough space in the budget for expanding development activities.

Engineer MA Jabbar, the Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry in his presentation called for ending government's discrimination with national and foreign investors.

He said how government policies favour the foreign investors in matter of taxation and tariff guarantees and made a specific reference to guarantee given to ICI and advance ruling given to foreign investors.

Jabbar said that such policies with a tilt towards foreign investors violate the WTO principles particularly those pertaining to TRIMs.

He suggested that a panel headed by a Chairman from the superior judiciary be formed to examine the merits of the decisions of the Federal Tax Ombudsman.

The President of the ICMAP Sher Afghan Malik said that there was neither aid nor protection available to the developing countries. Therefore, the government should pursue a business friendly policy.

Habib Fakhruddin, member Facilitation and Tax Education, Central Board of Revenue, said that customs procedure were being improved and automated.

The Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain and Chairman Board of Revenue Abdullah Yusuf were also due for participation but did not turn up.