The inaugural meeting of the 11th National Finance Commission is being held in Islamabad today (Thursday) as negotiations for the sharing of federal divisible resources between the Centre and the provinces formally begin.
Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is presiding over the meeting, which will take up three agenda items. The four provincial finance ministers and four non-statutory members — Dr Asad Sayeed (Sindh), Mehfooz Ali Khan (Balochistan), Nasir Mehmood Khosa (Punjab) and Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) — are members of the NFC.
At the outset, the meeting will hold general discussions on the “strategy for deliberations on the 11th NFC Award, including proposed formation of sub-groups for deliberations on thematic areas, etc”.
This will be followed by 10-minute presentations by each of the four provincial governments and the federal Ministry of Finance on their respective fiscal positions. The meeting will then set the schedule and timelines for future NFC meetings, most likely to be held in all federal and provincial capitals until the conclusion of deliberations.
The 11th NFC was constituted on August 22 to give a new award for sharing federal divisible resources between the Centre and the provinces. Its first meeting, initially called for August 27, was postponed repeatedly.
The terms of reference, set under Clause 2 of Article 160, require the 11th NFC to distribute between the federal government and the provinces the net proceeds of five major tax categories. These include taxes on income — including capital value tax and corporation tax but excluding taxes on income consisting of remuneration paid out of the Federal Consolidated Fund.
KP CM holds consultations ahead of NFC
Ahead of the meeting, KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi last night held consultations in preparation for the inaugural meeting in the presence of senior PTI leadership, where it was decided to “fully and effectively” uphold KP’s interests, with a special emphasis on the “financial merger of former federally administered tribal areas (Fata).”
Detailing the meeting in a post on X, the government of KP said that Afridi was briefed that Fata was “entitled to Rs1375 billion,” adding that the funds had not yet been provided.
During the meeting, the chief minister was briefed that “at the time of the merger of the former Fata, a promise was made to provide Rs100bn annually, which now amounts to Rs700bn”.
It was further discussed that out of the total amount, the Centre had only released Rs168bn, while Rs531.9bn remained pending.
CM Afridi termed the delay in funds a “violation of Article 160” of the Constitution, vowing to protect the province’s “financial and constitutional rights”.
The participants of the meeting included PTI’s Asad Qaiser, provincial minister Meena Khan Afridi, Finance Adviser Muzammil Aslam and others.
