Govt soon to announce 9th NFC award: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Monday reiterated a government’s resolve to soon announce a unanimous and equitable 9th National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

Dar, talking to media after chairing a meeting on the 9th National Finance Commission award, said four groups were formed for the award. They have submitted their reports and presented ‘useful’ inputs and suggestions, which are to be discussed in the third week of December.

He added that a roadmap for future macroeconomic stability at federal and provincial levels would be discussed at the upcoming meeting with a focus on provinces. National Finance Commission members Ayesha Ghous, Saleem Mandiviwala, Muhammad Ibrahim and Qaiser Bengali were also present on the occasion.

Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said the federal government had taken steps to increase revenues for the benefit of the country. He appreciated the provinces for their effort in resource mobilisation.

The meeting approved the biannual monitoring report of the 7th National Finance Commission award for the period January to June 2016. The biannual implementation monitoring report of the 7th National Finance Commission award will be placed before the parliament during the current week as per the constitutional requirement.

Ghous, who is also Punjab’s finance minister, said a direction has been set for the 9th National Finance Commission award. Mandviwala, Ibrahim and Bengali hoped that the 9th National Finance Commission award would soon be announced and expressed their satisfactions over the progress.