ISLAMABAD: The Federal Ministry of Finance has announced that the meeting of the Eleventh National Finance Commission (NFC) will be held today, December 04, for which the official agenda has been released.
This important meeting will be chaired by Federal Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb. The meeting will be attended by the four provincial finance ministers and nominated members of the private sector. The first part of the meeting will begin with a briefing on the financial situation of the federation, which will be presented by the Federal Secretary of Finance. According to the agenda, the Federal Ministry of Finance will present a detailed report on its economic status.
Among the points decided for the NFC, the provinces will be allowed to give separate 10-minute briefings on their financial position, after which the schedule of future meetings and the timelines for the NFC award will also be decided.Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that the views of the provinces will be heard with full respect in the meeting, and the federation will also openly present its financial situation. He added that all parties will participate in the discussion with the spirit of Pakistan First.
It may be recalled that an important consultative meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Sohail Khan Afridi to prepare for the NFC meeting, in which the financial and constitutional rights of the province were considered in detail.
In the meeting, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was given a comprehensive briefing on the NFC, in which the determination to continue the vigorous struggle at every forum for the achievement of the province’s rights was reiterated.It was informed in the briefing that the administrative integration of the former FATA has been completed, but financial integration has not been achieved yet.
After the merger of the former FATA, the merged districts have a total of Rs 1375 billion under NFC, which has not yet been provided.According to the previous promise, Rs 100 billion was to be provided annually, which makes a total of Rs 700 billion, but the federation has released only Rs 168 billion, while Rs 531.9 billion is still outstanding with the federation.
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