F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Thursday apprised the Senate that a meeting to finalize new National Finance Commission (NFC) award was scheduled on March 1.
Replying to a calling attention notice raised by Mukhtar Ahmed Dhamrah about delay in NFC Award, the minister said, earlier three meetings were held but participants could not reach at consensus.
He said Federal Government was fully committed to finalizing the NFC award as soon as possible with consensus of provincial governments.
The government was facilitating and steering the National Finance Commission (NFC) process for early finalization of the Award, he said.
He said the federal government was not overriding the process as she had only two members out of total 10 while the provinces have eight members.
Afzal said as per constitutional provision, new NFC was to be set at intervals not exceeding five years. This was up to NFC to finalize new award with consensus, he said.
He said, “An National Finance Commission (NFC) award remains in field till the recommendations for a new award are finalized and given a legal cover by the issuances and President’s order”.
The minister said the 7th NFC Award would remain in field till announcement of a new award.
The provinces were getting their due share as per existing National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and prepare their budgets accordingly, he said.
He said every province was getting their checques after every 15 days and their shares have also been doubled.
The minister said the President in pursuance of article 160 of the constitution had constituted 9th NFC Award on April 24, 2015.
He said in its inaugural meeting held on April 28, 2015, the 9th National Finance Commission (NFC) decided to constitute four thematic working groups in order to make its deliberation meaningful.
All the working groups have completed their assigned tasks and report was presented to National Finance Commission (NFC) in its 3rd meeting held on December 19,2016, he said.
He said in meeting the federal government presented two proposal regarding allocation of 3 per cent of divisible pool for national security fund and 4 per cent for special areas including AJK, GB and FATA.
He said however, Sindh, KPK and Balochistan were not agreed to the said proposals.
They (Provinces) were of the views that special areas and AJK were not part of NFC and the security was the exclusive responsibility of the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, the minister also presented implementation reports on the recommendations contained in the report of the Special committee on 24 demands made by the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the House.
