Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar presided over a meeting at the Finance Ministry this afternoon to monitor the National Finance Commission at the Finance Ministry.
During the meeting the Finance Minister disclosed that the Federal Government had decided to pay Rs.175.4 million and Rs. 296.9 million to Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Governments respectively as a reward for showing surplus in the first quarter.
It would be pertinent to mention that the Finance Minister had, during a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), committed to give incentives to provinces if they showed surpluses. The payment, the Finance Minister said, should encourage other provinces as well.
The meeting also took up the issue of payment of expenditure to Election Commission of Pakistan for the forthcoming Local Bodies General Elections. It was decided that the Federal Government would bear fifty percent of the costs while the remaining fifty percent were to be borne by the provinces.
The issue of Federal Adjuster also came up for discussion. During the meeting it was also decided that a committee be constituted under the chairmanship of Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Mohammad Asif which would present its recommendations well before the next meeting of CCI.
The meeting noted that during the period January-June, 2013, FBR reported tax collection of Rs.1,025.5 billion. Out of this collection the due share of the provinces (Punjab Rs.299.0 billion, Sindh Rs.141.9 billion, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Rs.94.6 billion and Balochistan Rs.57.1 billion) were disbursed to provinces.
For the entire financial year FBR collected revenue to the tune of Rs.1,887.3 billion. Based on this due provincial share of Rs.1099.8 billion (Punjab Rs.550.3 billion, Sindh Rs.261.1 billion, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Rsm174.2 bullion and Balochistan Rs.114.2 billion) were transferred to Provinces. The above transfers for the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa include 1% for War on Terror which was Rs.10.2 billion during the period under review and Rs.18.7 billion for the entire financial year.
The NFC Award also guarantees that the share of Balochistan province would be based on the budgetary projections irrespective of the FBR tax collection and the amount over and above the share based on actual collection would be borne by the Federal Government. The above transfers for Balochistan as such include Rs.4.6 billion additionally during the period under review and Rs.17.5 billion for the entire financial year.
In addition to the above transfers out of the divisible pool taxes, the net proceeds of the royalties on crude oil and natural gas, gas development surcharge and excise duty on natural gas were also transferred to provinces. The quantum of the amount were Punjab Rs.3.3 billion, Sindh Rs.26.7 billion, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Rs.10.6 billion and Balochistan Rs.3.7 billion during the period under review i.e. January-June, 2013. For entire financial year the disbursed amounts were Punjab Rs.7.3 billion, Sindh RS.46.4 billion, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Rs.18.2 billion and Balochistan Rs.8.8 billion.
NFC after thorough discussion approved the draft report subject to minor modifications proposed by the provinces. All the participants expressed their satisfaction over the implementation of NFC Award and thanked the Federal Finance Minister for his kind support and patronage.
Syed Murad Ali Shah, Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh on Finance, Mr. Siraj-ul-Haq, Finance Minister KPK, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, Finance Minister Punjab, Khalid Langau Finance Minister Balochistan, Khwaja Mohammad Asif, Federal Minister for Water and Power, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Senior Officials of the Ministry of Finance, Federal and Provincial Government also attended the meeting.
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