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A report in the press has indicated that the Balochistan government, these days the focus of much attention because of its failure to control the unrest there, has also got money problems. These might be portrayed as being due to inefficient and corrupt provincial machinery, but the facts indicate first that the Balochistan government is not alone; its problems are common to all the provinces.
They are rooted in the Centerâ?Ts dismissive attitude towards the provincesâ?T finances, reflected in the failure since 2002 to finalise a National Finance Commission Award. To be fair, this government is not particularly mean to the provinces; the caretaker Meraj Khalid government finalised an Award in 1997 which was based on tax revenue projections which were clearly far-fetched, and which the provinces had initially objected to strenuously.
As a result, the present Award, which the Nawaz government did nothing to improve in its tenure even though it could have, is based on flawed projections, and is three years past its sell-by date. The harmful effects are being felt by the provinces, and the Centerâ?Ts finances benefit.
The trap, into which the provinces have fallen, is that the initial projections were overestimated, with the result that the provinces receive lower annual budget estimates from the Centre every year than they had expected. Then, until a couple of years ago, CBR used to fail to meet the budget projections, and the provinces thereby got not just less money than they had a right to expect under the Awardâ?Ts projections, but less money than they were promised in the beginning of the year.
Some provincial Finance Ministers, particularly those of Sindh, have tried to portray this as some kind of stealing by the Centre, but that does not solve their fiscal problem while weakening the federation. The provinces can do nothing about this, because they draw at least 80 percent (the Punjab), and as much as 95 percent (Balochistan) of their revenue from the federal sources under the NFC Award.
They therefore have no control over tax collection, and cannot improve their own revenue position. Even though the money is their right under the Constitution, the Centre still behaves as if this is a dole it gives out of its generosity.
An NFC Award, which meets the provinceâ?Ts requirements and is based on realistic projections, is the need of the hour. Balochistanâ?Ts problems, or those of other provinces, are not going to be solved by the Centre launching mega projects (which it controls), but by empowering the provincial governments and giving them due resources, which would allow them to meet the needs of their populaces. Giving them more control over their resource bases, such as devolving buoyant taxes to them, would also help.
If such a strategy had been adopted, of obeying the Constitution in its true letter and spirit, rather than continuously trying to subvert it by narrow and even patently incorrect interpretations, it is possible that Baloch leaders might not have been making the sort of unrealistic demands, like ownership of natural resources vesting in the freeholder, which are now proving a stumbling block in an agreement.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/feb-2005/7/editorials1.php |
