The federal government on Thursday postponed the inaugural meeting of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC) at Sindh’s request, citing the ongoing flood situation.
As per reports, the meeting, originally scheduled for Friday in Islamabad, was delayed hours before it was set to begin, while Balochistan’s technical member had already excused himself due to other commitments.
A notification from the NFC Secretariat stated that the Sindh government’s request to defer the session had been accepted. “The inaugural meeting of the 11th NFC scheduled for Friday is postponed,” it read. The Secretariat informed eight of the nine members of the commission, leaving Balochistan’s Farmanullah unnotified.
The NFC consists of nine members, chaired by Federal Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, with two members from each province. Punjab is represented by technical member Nasir Mahmood Khosa, Sindh by Dr Asad Sayeed, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan, and Balochistan by Farmanullah.
The 11th NFC was constituted by the president to decide a new formula for distributing federal taxes between the Centre and provinces, and among provinces. Under the 7th NFC award in 2010, the provincial share was raised to 57.5% of the Federal Divisible Pool without additional responsibilities, contributing to a persistent budget deficit and rising public debt.
Officials noted that the Finance Ministry and provincial finance departments were scheduled to present their fiscal positions, with support from the World Bank for five-year macroeconomic projections.
Recent reports by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Planning Commission suggest that Pakistan’s fiscal situation is manageable, with projected revenue at 16% of GDP, expenditure at 18.8%, and public debt declining to 64% of GDP by 2030.
The NFC notification stated that the commission will review issues relating to sharing financial expenses incurred by the Federation or provinces in matters within provincial and trans-provincial domains.
