No Share Of Erstwhile FATA Earmarked In NFC Award Before Merge With KPK: Minister Of State For Finance And Revenue Ali Pervaiz

Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervaiz on Monday informed the National Assembly that no share of erstwhile FATA was earmarked in NFC Award before merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2024) Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervaiz on Monday informed the National Assembly that no share of erstwhile FATA was earmarked in NFC Award before merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Replying to a question during Question Hour, the minister said the NFC Award determines distribution of resources between Federation and four provinces which are identified under Article 1 of the Constitution and after merger of erstwhile FATA, the position remains unchanged.

He said at the time of merger, on a summary of SAFRON Division titled,-Reports of the Committee on FATA Reforms, 2016‘ the Cabinet vide Case No.51/02/2017 dated 02-03-2017, inter-alia decided that; “The NFC should be requested to consider making an allocation of 3% of the gross Federal divisible pool on annual basis for the implementation of FATA Development Plan......”.

Announcement of new NFC Award is the domain of National Finance Commission under Article 160 of the Constitution and the matter is already on the agenda of NFC, he said.

The minister said a Sub-Group under the convenership of Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was constituted by 9th NFC (2015-20) as well as by the 10th NFC (2020-25) exclusively to deliberate upon the development needs of erstwhile FATA. The Sub-Group has not submitted the recommendations to NFC yet, he added.

Ali Pervaiz said the Federal Cabinet, on April 2, 2019 approved, grant-in-aid to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for meeting re-current and development expenditure of ex-FATA till the announcement of new NFC Award.

To another question, Ali Pervaiz said current budget deficit is being financed through domestic and external borrowing.

The borrowing by the government is primarily to finance the fiscal deficit, he said.

The minister of state said the increase in public debt over the period is mainly due to fiscal deficit and exchange rate depreciation.

He said the government‘s borrowing strategy is in-line with the MediumTerm Debt Management Strategy which focus on the maximizing the concessional external financing which ensuring the foreign Currency exposure within public debt to prudent levels, lengthening of maturity profile of domestic and external debt, diversification of borrowing instruments, and development of debt capital markets. Over the medium-term, Government‘s strategy to reduce public debt burden to a sustainable level includes prudent debt management operations in-line with the Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy, fiscal consolidation measures that include revenue mobilization and expenditure rationalization.

He said such measures which will lead to Primary surpluses that will help meet the general government expenditures with lesser borrowing.

To another question, he said the government, SBP and the Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) have collectively implemented multiple incentive schemes and support mechanisms to facilitate the inflow of workers‘ remittances through formal channels.

APP/raz-zah