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ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Shibli Faraz has announced that the federal government will seek to improve the mechanism for funds distributed under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award in order to check the spending by provinces.
“The cabinet discussed the merits and demerits of the current NFC Award mechanism, under which funds are provided to provinces,” he said while addressing a post-cabinet meeting press conference in Islamabad today (Tuesday).
The information minister informed that it emerged during the discussion that there was a fundamental gap between the money that the Centre gives to the provinces and the revenues generated by the provinces.
“The provincial governments don’t have any motivation to work to raise their revenues locally because they know they will receive a certain amount from the federal government,” he added.
Shibli Faraz pointed out that there was no mechanism to decide how the NFC funds would be spent and the money was seen to have been previously used to pay provincial salaries and for personal use such as purchasing cars, etc.
“We will have to improve this mechanism if we want the money to be spent in the right places and on the right people,” he added. Shibli Faraz further said that one of the suggestions given during the meeting was to link the amount given to the provinces under the award to the funds raised by the provinces on their own.
“Of course, some provinces will be at an advantage under this proposal, while some will be at a disadvantage like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan where there are poverty and no industry,” he added.
Commenting on the Senate elections, the federal cabinet decided to seek the guidance of Supreme Court of Pakistan through a show of hands. “Our aim is to ensure transparent and credible elections of the upper house,” he added.
The Information Minister further said that a bill has also been introduced in the parliament regarding the Senate elections with the aim to check the horse-trading.
“It is also in the interest of all political parties so that only those candidates who are nominated by the parties come to the house and that the parties get the seats as per their strength in the Electoral College,” he added.
Referring to Ehsaas programme, the federal Minister said that data has been developed under the Ehsaas programme to achieve the goal of targeted subsidies. “The database will be effective which will help to ensure subsidies reaching the deserving people,” he added.
