LAHORE, Dec 16: Inter-provincial coordination ministers on Saturday took a clutch of crucial decisions on provincial autonomy including the transfer of the capital value tax to the provinces within a year.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the inter-provincial coordination committee. Federal Inter-provincial Coordination Minister Salim Saifullah presided over the meeting that was attended by the inter-provincial ministers of Punjab and Sindh and the chief secretaries of Balochistan and the NWFP.

The participants of the meeting decided that the federal government would collect the capital value tax for a year and then transfer it to the provinces.

They also decided that the provinces would help the parliamentary sub-committee headed by Wasim Sajjad formulate a package of constitutional amendments needed to give greater autonomy to the federating units.

Briefing newsmen on the decisions taken by the inter-provincial coordination committee, Mr Saifullah said the federal government wanted to gradually expand the taxation base of the provinces. He added that it also wanted the district governments to have their own sources of income.

"We would also try to give power to collect the property tax to the provinces," he said.

He said autonomy would be given to the provinces through an amendment to the constitution. He said that at present the government did not have the required number of treasury members in the National Assembly to pass such an amendment. But he hoped that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakistan People’s Party would help the government amend the constitution to give autonomy to the provinces.

The federal minister said the country’s political parties had given their opinion on the subject of provincial autonomy. He said some parties demanded a total abolition of the concurrent legislative list. He said the federal government could give from 20 to 25 items from the concurrent legislative list and a couple of items from the federal legislative list to the provinces.

He said the committee under Mr Sajjad would submit its recommendations to Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Dec 31.

He said it was the federal government's earnest desire to give autonomy to the provinces during the remainder of its term in office.

Mr Saifullah said the meeting decided that the federal government should transfer National Gender Reform Action Plan funds to the provinces so that they could be passed on to the districts.

It was also decided, he said, that the provinces would create focal points to coordinate with the federal trade ministry with regard to streamlining free trade agreements Pakistan was signing with various countries. This would help the provinces advance their proposals and reservations on the agreements.

He said the meeting decided to ask the federal interior secretary to immediately have a meeting with the provinces to make a plan whereby expenditure on law and order could be equitably distributed among them.

Under the interim National Finance Commission award the federal government had given an additional Rs 85 billion to all provinces this year. The share would continue to increase and in 2010 the provinces would get half of the divisible pool. The president wanted to give maximum financial autonomy to provinces, he said.

The federal minister said it was decided that the federal government should forthwith release all the pending mines and mineral development funds to provinces. The complaint about the delay of the release of funds was made by Sindh and they would be released to the provinces in the next few days. The meeting rejected a demand by some FATA parliamentarian that civil officers' promotion to higher grades should be based on the provinces' quota in the civil services. The view was that the acceptance of the demand would spoil promotion chances of officers from smaller provinces. At present this was being made on merit, he said.

The minister said it was decided to ask the Water and Power Development Authority to report within 30 days the current situation of its SCARP loans to the provinces so that this issue could be resolved permanently.

It was decided that the Sindh and federal governments would make an out-of-court decision about the infrastructure tax imposed by the province on the import of gold. The tax was opposed by the federal government and the issue was pending before a court for decision, he explained.

The meeting decided that the federal government would accept the claim of the Sindh government regarding the sale of Lakhra coal reserves while privatizing the Lakhra power generation plant. The province had allowed the federal government to privatize the power plant but had claimed ownership of the coal reserves, demanding the right to determine its price for sale.

On another demand by Sindh, it was decided to ask the federal finance ministry to deduct at source all dues of the province pending with various federal departments with regard to services being provided to them by it. The services included maintenance of the water supply board and providing security to the radio and television stations.

The minister said Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP agreed to help Punjab fight narcotics trafficking, gun-running and theft of vehicles.

The federal and Punjab governments were concerned over the increase in drug trafficking and addiction cases. And Punjab requested the other provinces and FATA to help it control the menace. It was decided to ask home ministers and police chiefs of all the provinces to attend the next meeting of the committee to brief it on the related situation in the country.