PESHAWAR, March 22: The NWFP governor is likely to be delegated financial powers to supervise the Federally Administered Tribal Areas’ (Fata’s) financial affairs as part of the under-implementation Fata Reforms Programme, official sources told Dawn here on Friday.
“The NWFP governor is likely to be vested in the same financial powers to decide Fata affairs he is presently exercising in the case of the province,” said the sources.
Placement of the financial powers with the NWFP governor — the administrative head of Fata in his capacity as agent to the President — including the appointment of staff for Fata, would, apparently, lead to do away with the supervisory role of the Federal Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) and finance division, Islamabad.
“A proposal to this effect makes part of the overall Fata Reforms Programme which has duly been approved by President Gen Pervez Musharraf at a recently held meeting,” claimed the official who has been involved in the preparation of the Fata reforms package.
The reforms programme comprises revamping of the tribal areas’ financial and accounting systems to facilitate achievement of the programme’s main objective — Fata’s integration into the NWFP.
The broad outline seeking revamping of the financial system for Fata, according to sources, involve elimination of the existing multiple channels of financial control — Safron and finance division — by assigning the financial powers to the NWFP governor in line with the powers and authority the office of the governor is vested in at present in the case of the Frontier province’s financial affairs.
“The power functions and responsibilities of Safron should be delegated to the governor, thereby, eliminating the role of Safron in Fata affairs,” said the official, quoting a part of the Fata Reforms Programme — already approved by the chief executive.
Similarly, the reforms programme includes transferring of the Fata’s current and development budgets from the Ministry of Finance to the provincial governor.
Presently, the administration and financial setup of Fata is governed under SRO-109 (I)/70, issued on June 25, 1970, and other regulations issued by the federal government from time to time.
The finance-related reforms envisaged under the overall Fata reforms appears to be a major change.
Although, at present, the provincial governor — being administrative head of Fata in his capacity as agent to the President — exercises all the financial powers vested in the administrative division of the federal government, he is not empowered, under existing financial rules, to create or abolish any post in Fata or to make reappropriation of accounts.
As a step towards this direction, the under-establishment secretariat of the NWFP governor would be strengthened enough to manage and deal with Fata affairs effectively for which, said the sources, the specially created Fata cells in all the departments of the provincial government would be centralised, placing these in the governor’s secretariat.
Similarly, the Fata reforms ask for doing away with the collection of local levies/taxes imposed unilaterally by the political authorities of every administrative unit the Fata has.
At present, according to official documents available with Dawn , there are over 30 different ‘ad-hoc’ levies being introduced and collected by the political authorities on different items, including flour, sugar, fruits, vegetables, timber and against identity cards.
“These levies — involving total annual collection from Rs300 million to Rs500 million from the seven administrative units the Fata has — are collected at the point of entry or exit of a political agency and constitute a form of tax. There is no uniform system of taxation and different agencies charge different amounts for the same items as tax,” contained an official document.
After the abolition of these levies and taxes, the government would arrange funds to meet the expenditures currently being met by these ‘ad-hoc’ levies.