Islamabad: According to an official notification issued by the Presidency, President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi has finalized the 10th National Finance Commission on Tuesday that shall oversee the composition of the committee to decide the share of fiscal resources earmarked for provinces.
As 8th and 9th NFC remained inconclusive, the revenue distribution mechanism set under the 7th NFC Award, given by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in 2010, would be extended to the new NFC.
Federal Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch will serve as an expert for the commission, while the Adviser to the PM on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, will preside over the commission’s functions in the absence of a finance minister.
The NFC award will be considered effective from April 23, 2020.
As the notification reads, following shall be members of the commission:
The composition of the commission will be:
1) Minister for Finance, Government of Pakistan — Chairman
2) Minister for Finance, Government of Punjab — Member
3) Minister for Finance, Government of Sindh — Member
4) Minister for Finance, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — Member
5) Minister for Finance, Government of Balochistan — Member
6) Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue — Member
7) Tariq Bajwa, Government of Punjab — Member
8) Dr Asad Sayeed, Government of Sindh — Member
9) Musharraf Rasool Cyan, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — Member
10) Javed Jabbar, Government of Balochistan — Member
11) Finance Secretary, Government of Pakistan — Official expert
In the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the new NFC, there were additions of a few terms, which, according to news sources, were not part of the previous commissions.
The ToRs mentioned in a notification issued on Tuesday included ‘Assessment and allocation of resources to meet expenditures made on security and natural disasters/calamities’. Sources believe that the provinces may object giving additional share in NFC to the Centre on account of security and national disaster.
Meanwhile, another addition in ToRs was related to ‘Assessment of total public debt and allocation of resources for its repayment’. Sources said the issue of repayment of debt and proposing any allocation under this head was new for the NFC. The same, according to sources, may also invite objection from provinces.
Under the existing NFC arrangements, the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP) is distributed under the ratio of 57.5% to 42.5% among the provinces and the federal government, respectively.
Currently, the issue of the NFC award and the 18th Amendment have become a point of conflict between the government and the opposition parties.
