ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani has rejected the new terms of reference (ToRs) for the recently constituted National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, warning that they reflect Islamabad’s intent to roll back the fiscal autonomy granted to provinces under the 1973 Constitution, which will be a “violation” of Article 160(3A) of the Constitution, 1973 that provides the share of the provinces cannot be reduced from the last NFC Award.
“The new ToRs are in violation of Article 160(3A) of the Constitution, which bars reducing the provincial share from what was allocated in the previous NFC Award, and also seek to shift the burden of major development projects to the provinces, compel them to contribute towards federal expenditure during natural disasters, and finance federal schemes with a provincial impact,” he said in a statement on Monday while rejecting the new TORs for the NFC Award.
Rabbani alleged that the federal government also wanted to amend the Constitution, 1973 by giving Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) federal responsibility and funds from the Divisible Pool.
“In these circumstances a new TOR should be added namely, that all tax collection should be done by the provinces, the federal government present its budget and the provinces after scrutiny meet federal expenditure,” he said, adding: “This is one form of fiscal federalism.”
The former Senate chairman suspected that the federal government under the garb of the NFC Award wanted to circumvent the provincial autonomy given by the 18th Amendment.
“The 11th NFC Award has been notified in the backdrop of the Auditor General of Pakistan’s (AGP) latest report on the accounts of the federal government, wherein irregularities worth Rs375 trillion have been pointed out,” Rabbani said noting that the federal government had failed to manage its accounts as was evident from the AGP’s report.
He opined that the federal government had avoided introducing reforms that would have reduced their own costs, plug leakages or cut unnecessary spending. “The federal government has failed to expand the tax net and meet tax collection targets,” he added.