FCC meeting reviews implementation of NFC award

ISLAMABAD: A Fiscal Coordination Committee (FCC) meeting chaired by the Finance Minister Asad Umar on Wednesday reviewed the bi-annual implementation of the National Finance Commission Award (NFC Award) for the period July-December, 2016, January-June, 2017 and July-December, 2017.

According to a statement released from the ministry, the meeting also reviewed the federal government Public Financial Management (PFM) program which was being run with the help of World Bank.

The meeting decided to constitute a sub-committee and technical committees to review various actionable items in the PFM Program.

The meeting was briefed by the ministry of finance regarding the fiscal consolidation program of the federal government, reads the statement.

Provincial finance ministers assured the federal government of their full support for the fiscal consolidation efforts as it was need of the hour. Governor State Bank was assigned the task to chalk-out a simplified procedure in this regard.

Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, finance Ministers, senior officials of Punjab, KP and Baluchistan were also present in the meeting.

NFC Award is a constitutional obligation. It is clearly indicated in the Article 160 of the “Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973” that it has been made mandatory for the government to compose NFC Award at an interval extending not more than five years for the amicable resource distribution
among the federation and its respective units.

Provinces then also re-distribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula through PFC Awards.

And this way, the state functions. The central government collected most of the revenues and then redistributed vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the
provinces. Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula known as Provincial Finance Commission (PFC.