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GST to province: Sindh legislators demand
By Imtiaz Ali
Karachi:Sindh Minister for
Information Shazia Marri said that the “disputed environment”
created by outgoing President Gen Pervez Musharraf was responsible
for the delay behind the new National Finance Commission (NFC) award
based on multiple criteria.
However, she was optimistic as
according to her now the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif
had also shown his flexibility for changing the criteria of the NFC
award.
Talking to The News at her office,
Marri said that Sharif during his recent visit to the Sindh province
had given “good signal” for multiple criteria for the NFC award.
The provinces have to be strengthened
and developed, and the NFC award, which keeps into consideration all
financial difficulties of the provinces, would hopefully achieve
this purpose. The present government was also concerned and had
shown its commitment.
The government was making concerted
efforts to get the new NFC award as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the NFC award has not
been announced since more than a decade.
A caretaker government in 1996 had
announced the NFC award, which was beyond its mandate and
responsibility. As their mandate was holding elections only. It was
also announced on the basis of population. It was a wrong decision
and affected all provinces.
Elaborating, the information minister
said that prior to that, share of the provinces from the NFC award
was 80 per cent while 20 per cent goes to the federal government.
But the NFC award of 1996 changed this arrangement.
It brought down share of provinces to
37.5 per cent while share of the federal government was increased up
to 62.5 per cent including five per cent collection charges.
It was a grave and manifest injustice
with the provinces, she said.
“We always opposed this “illegal and
unethical” NFC award of 1996 and insisted that such arrangement
should be undone,” she added.
Subsequent democratic set up also
followed that arrangement.
When Gen Musharraf came into power,
he also disregarded the Constitution of 1973 and gave an interim NFC
award. His finance minister Shaukat Aziz did not give any weightage
to the provinces’ concerns and got promoted to prime minister-ship
In 2005, Gen Musharraf announced the
NFC award, which was illegal. As the new NFC award could not be
given until new recommendations are given by the provinces.
The General went back to the NFC
award of 1996 and amended it, which was a violation of the
constitution, as according to the concerned article, he could only
fine tune the new NFC award provided when the provinces, members of
the NFC had submitted its recommendations.
When the Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP) came into power in 2008, it had expedited its efforts for a
new NFC award and the federal government had also formed the NFC
committee.
Sindh had also set up an in-house
committee under chief minister Sindh who is also finance minister.
The News:Thursday, May 21, 2009
This committee had held various
meetings whereby the members discussed NFC issues in details. To
assist NFC member as to how the NFC case can be taken, the in-house
committee bifurcated NFC and non-NFC issues.
Non-NFC issues were general sales tax
(GST) on services including Central Excise. As per the constitution,
it is provincial subject.
But the then Sindh Governor,
Mohammedmian Soomro promulgated an ordinance in 2000, under which
GST on services was handed over to the federal government. It was
violation of the constitution.
Central Excise on utility services
was also taken away by the federal government without any law.
PPP being in opposition in the Sindh
Assembly raised this issue before the provincial legislature to undo
it. But the then finance minister Syed Sardar Ahmed did not agree
over it.
Now Sindh’s all coalition parties
were on board who had developed consensus that GST should come back
to the provinces including central excise.
She opined that when GST would return
back to the provinces, it would reduce the financial burden on the
provinces to a great extent caused by the unfair NFC award. She said
that chief minister Sindh had written letters to the federal
government in this regard.
Marri said that it was part of the
PPP’s manifesto that the NFC award should be based on multiple
criteria.
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