HYDERABAD, June 11: The People’s Party Parliamentarians has demanded that the National Finance Commission award should be distributed among the provinces on the basis of revenue generation.
Talking to journalists after attending a meeting of the water committee at the residence of Abrar Kazi of the Awami Tehrik, Sindh PPP president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro condemned the government’s decision to continue the old NFC award distribution formula.
The leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly said Sindh would suffer a loss of Rs7 to 8 billion every year if the old formula was continued.
Former senator and a member of the central executive committee of the PPP, Taj Haider, disputed the figures of the NFC pool, saying the total project of the NFC was shown at 13.7 per cent and the increase for provinces was shown at 11 per cent. He said it was a jugglery of figures by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and the gap of 2.7 per cent would continue to hit the provinces.
NAZIMS: The Nazims of Hyderabad City and Latifabad union councils have noted gross irregularities in the proposed development schemes under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2002-2003 and accused the district government, Hyderabad, of keeping the District Council in the dark.
Some of the Nazims told this correspondent on Wednesday that funds were not even allocated for the ADP last year, so there was no likelihood that the Sindh government would be releasing them now.
They said that because of the non-availability of ADP funds, the majority of development schemes could not be executed in the rural areas as compared to urban areas.
Great resentment has prevailed among the representatives of union councils of the city and Latifabad ever since they came to know that funds for ADP 2002-2003 were never allocated last year, yet they were asked to submit schemes.
According to Q. Mohammad Hakim, a Nazim of Union Council-3, Hyderabad city, the EDO, Works and Services, had distributed an unsigned statement of Taluka-wise proposal of distribution of funds before the District Council, which indicated allocation of an amount of Rs113.25 million under the ADP. Subsequently, the members submitted their schemes in the session which were duly approved and sent to the EDO, Works and Services.
However, he said that a letter, P-14 EDO(F&P)/619/2003, dated April 25, contained the amount of all these schemes. He further said, the calculation of this amount put the total cost of schemes under the ADP at Rs80.04 million instead of Rs113.25 million.
Another major financial irregularity, he said, was that in spite of non-allocation of funds under the ADP for sugar-producing areas of Matiari, Tando Mohammad Khan and Hyderabad Talukas, funds were allocated for them under the same head although these were to receive funds exclusively from the head of sugar cess.
Qazi Abdul Qadeer, the Nazim of union council-4 of Latifabad, told this correspondent that the district government had collected funds of the Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP), ADP and sugar cess in a pool and the total amount of the pool was divided among 102 union councils.