ISLAMABAD: The Federal Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar led the second meeting of the ninth National Finance Commission (NFC) today in Islamabad. Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, (Finance Minister Punjab),Senator Saleem Mandviwala (Member NFC Sindh), Prof. Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (Member NFC KPK) and Dr. Kaiser Bengali (Member NFC Balochistan) took an interest in the meeting. Fund Secretaries from the four territories additionally took part in the meeting. Government Finance Secretary, Chairman FBR and senior authorities of the Ministry of Finance additionally went to the meeting.
Chairman, NFC Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar welcomed the participants and gave a brief overview on the structural and reform initiatives taken by the federal government during the last three years.He appreciated the consultations undertaken by the provinces and the federal government in a cordial atmosphere under the ambit of the National Finance Commission. On this occasion Minutes of the first meeting of 9th NFC Award were adopted.
The meetingalso considered and approved the Biannual Monitoring Report of the 7th NFC Award for the period January to June, 2016. Chairman NFC in consensus with representatives of provinces decided that the biannual implementation monitoring report of the 7th NFC Award will be placed before the parliament during the current week as per the constitutional requirement.
The Commission received presentations from the four Working Groups which have been constituted to deliberate on specific areas and prepare recommendations for the 9th NFC Award: namely, Resource Mobilization at Federal and Provincial level (Punjab), Devolved verses Integrated Tax structure-Evaluation of Tax Collection Framework in Pakistan (Sindh), Allocation Efficiency and Expenditure Analysis at the Provincial and Federal level (KPK) and Rationalization of Subsidy and Grants (Federal Government). The Commission Members appreciated the work done by the Working Groups which will provide a sound basis for the ongoing deliberations of the Commission for the next NFC Award. The Commission directed to update the reports of the Groups latest by 10th December, 2016.
Senator Ishaq Dar, Chairman NFC thanked all the provincial government representatives and members of NFC for their continued active participation towards finalizing the 9th NFC Award. The Federal and Provincial Governments agreed to achieve the next Award at the earliest and meet regularly. In this regard the Chairman and Members NFC agreed to meet during the third week of December for the next round of consultations.
