Sindh wants NFC share increased to 60pc

Karachi
Sindh’s share from the federal divisible pool must be gradually increased from the existing 57.5 percent to 60 percent as committed in the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) award.
This recommendation to the federal government came from Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on grounds that the Sindh province was actively battling against terrorism.
He said the federal government should provide additional finances to the province to support the war against terror, similar to the case of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The chief minister was presiding over a consultative meeting at the CM House held to discuss how the province will pitch its case to the federal government for the upcoming NFC award.
Those who attended the meeting included Sindh finance minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, adviser for NFC award Saleem Mandviwalla, chief secretary Sindh Muhammad Siddique Memon and finance secretary Sohail Rajput.
Responding to the notion that the present NFC award will be extended for another year, the chief minister said the provincial government will put up a resistance to this move if the matter was raised in the meeting convened today by the federal finance minister Ishaq Dar.
He believed that Sindh required a new NFC award as per its schedule.
He said the provinces were experiencing financial constraints and the NFC award was the only valid instrument to pull them out from their difficulties. According to him, it had been decided in the NFC meeting that share of provinces will be progressively raised by at least one percent every year.
Hence, he said, in the present NFC award the share of Sindh had been increased from 56 to 57.5 percent, as promised by the federal government.
The chief minister said Sindh had been battling terrorism for the past three years with its own resources, while the federal government hadn’t even paid the amount of Rs10 billion it had committed to the province.
He demanded that the Sindh government should be provided an additional share on account of war on terror from the divisible pool.
On the occasion, the meeting also disagreed with the proposal of federal government for receiving a share of the provinces’ funds on account of the expenditures being made in Gilgit-Baltistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, natural disasters and terrorism.
Contrary to this, participants of the meeting agreed that Sindh should receive a share on account of its efforts to eradicate terrorism and militancy from the province.
The chief minister said the NFC had enabled development in the province because it was because of it that Sindh was receiving Rs1,228 billion as compared to Rs396 billion it used to receive before.
He directed the team developing the province’s pitch for more funds under the NFC, to also include departments and vertical projects which had been devolved under the 18th amendment, especially the constitution of Sindh Higher Education Commission.