Provinces not ready for more responsibility

[ajpirzada]

ISLAMABAD: The provinces have sought a delay in transfer of federal departments and ministries falling under the Concurrent List, saying they are not financially sound to bear additional burden.

In separate requests to the federal government, the four provinces said the transfer of responsibilities from the next fiscal year was not feasible and they needed at least two years to generate funds and reap benefits of the National Finance Commission award under which the provinces would get higher allocations.

Finance ministry officials said that Punjab had sought a delay of three years. “It doesn’t mean obstructing the implementation of the NFC award,” an official of the ministry said, adding that when the centre had transferred revenue sources to the provinces they should take responsibilities.

He said the delay in transfer of 24 ministries and departments would cost the centre about Rs180 billion in 2010-11.
The officials said that another option for the federal government was to transfer development projects worth Rs240 billion financed by it in four provinces. “The provinces can complete these projects with increased revenues they will get under the seventh NFC award,” they added.

Under the award, the share of the federal government in net proceeds of the divisible pool will be 44 per cent during 2010-11. It will be reduced to 42.5 per cent during 2011-12.

“The increase in provincial share is linked to the transfer of functions under the repealed Concurrent List to the provinces from the next fiscal year,” the officials said.

At a recent meeting presided over by the prime minister’s adviser, Dr Hafeez Sheikh, finance ministry officials suggested that some departments needed to be transferred to provinces from next fiscal year.

The officials said the ministry would suggest the federal government to transfer ministries of education, health and sports from the next financial year because these functions were mainly handled at the provincial level.

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Provinces not ready for more responsibility

 

[ice_man]

what nonsense! they were crying to have provincial autonomy for years! and now when they have it they want to delay it because they were not prepared for it!

i am not afraid for other provinces but Balochistan "leaders" will cry foul! and that no provincial autonomy was given to them and the poor people who have no access to the media will believe it!

 

[sparklingway]

Provinces are still lacking financial autonomy, i.e. revenue collection. Sindh has been fighting with FBR over GST collection for nearly an year now.

 

[ajpirzada]

GST is not a big issue. enough autonomy is given through this amendment and i would not agree to any more of it.

 

[sparklingway]

GST is not a big issue. enough autonomy is given through this amendment and i would not agree to any more of it.

I was talking about financial autonomy. Legislative autonomy has been granted, federation still has near absolute powers over taxation. Provincial governments are responsible directly for much of our affairs and they face cash droughts.

 

[ajpirzada]

I was talking about financial autonomy. Legislative autonomy has been granted, federation still has near absolute powers over taxation. Provincial governments are responsible directly for much of our affairs and they face cash droughts.

provinces are being given financial autonomy as well. in NFC alone more than 10% of resources will be passed on to the provinces. as far as collecting GST or VAT is concerned, collection in itself is of no importance unless either you dont trust faderal gov or u urself intend to do some corruption.
there are some taxes which can still be impose by provincial gov while others are under the jurisdiction of faderal govt. you need to have some uniformity in your policies to achieve some economic goals. that is y giving provinces full right to impose any kind of tax is not a gud idea. also you dont want to end up in a state where centre is beggin provinces for money.
under this amendment, centre is already giving enough to provinces. its way too much than wat they have in india. lets first see how judicious will they be with these new responsibilities coming their way and then we will talk about wat else can be given to provinces.
in a recent meeting bw centre and provinces, provinces have simply declined to take owner ship of any projects being initiated by centre in past few yrs in their respective province. now this is not fair at all knowing that centre is transferring resources to them and hence projects should be transferred as well.