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NWFP ends NFC boycott after Centre pays hydel profit

* Province to participate in fifth round of talks at Karachi today

By Razzak Abro and Zakir Hassnain

KARACHI/Peshawar: The representatives of the federal government and all four provinces will today (Wednesday) meet for two-day discussions on the National Finance Commission Award, after the NWFP ended its boycott of NFC meetings upon the receipt of the first instalment of Rs 10 billion against the outstanding net hydel profit.

The federal government had announced last month that it would pay the NWFP Rs 110 billion against its outstanding net hydel profit, but had failed to keep its commitment of paying the first instalment. However, the Centre issued a Rs 10 billion cheque late on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the NWFP government’s announcement to end its boycott of NFC meetings. Toady’s meeting will be the fifth round of talks since the reformation of the NFC Award. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of the Sindh finance minister, will lead the province in the discussions.

Provincial chief ministers will be in Karachi during the discussions, but official sources said they would not take part in the NFC deliberations. The NFC meeting is expected to continue consultations over the factors for horizontal resource distribution in the NFC. Stakeholders have yet to finalise the factors, and their ratio, for resource distribution from the federal divisible pool.

Apart from population, Sindh demands the government set provincial revenue as one of the criteria for resource distribution, while the NWFP and Balochistan insist making poverty and area the basis for distributing resources. “We would continue discussion on the NFC about things we had discussed in earlier meetings at Peshawar and Quetta meetings,” said Qaisar Bengali, who is an NFC member from Sindh.

Talking to Daily Times, he said the suggested criteria of area and indicators of poverty were yet to be discussed and defined. Earlier, NWFP Finance Minister Muhammad Humayun Khan told reporters that security expenditures in the province were increasing by the day and demanded the Centre allow an additional five percent from the divisible pool to the NWFP. Humayun said the NFC technical committee, formed to decide unpaid interest on the Tribal Award and arrears regarding net hydel profit, would soon meet to make decisions in consultation with the provincial government. He hoped Chashma right bank canal project would also be approved in the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting. “The federal government is sincere in solving all issues,” said the minister.

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