ISLAMABAD: With no objection from the provinces, the first Bi-Annual Monitoring Report on National Finance Commission Award (NFC) for July-December 2015 was given formal approval during a meeting held here at the Finance Ministry.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting which among others was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, finance secretaries and representatives of all the four provinces. The finance minister approved the report without any objection from any province on data and figures related to the federal accounts and total collections.
The report would be forwarded to the National Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday for further perusal. According to the report, total FBR collections were recorded at Rs 1448.79 billion during the period whereas the gross divisible pool stood at Rs. 1415.17 during July-December 2015.
Giving details about the distribution, the report says, out of the total divisible pool, Punjab received 51.74 per cent of funds during the period under review followed by Sindh which received 24.55 per cent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received 14.62 per cent while Balochistan was provided 9.09 per cent funds from the divisible pool.
In addition, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was provided Rs 14.02 billion for War on Terror whereas Balochistan province was also given Rs. 5.47 billion in the same head. Meanwhile, the federal minister for finance stressed the need for convening the next meeting of NFC as soon as possible. It was decided that both quarterly and biannual meetings would be held simultaneously.
It is expected that the next meeting would be held in October this year. On the occasion, the participants highlighted the importance that the NFC secretariat should be further strengthened and all the provinces should get data from this secretariat. Meanwhile, the Punjab provincial review meeting of NFC would be held in Lahore during the first week of September.