20000412

Provincial finance

commission to look

after 'dist govt' needs

,says NRB chief

WIRASAT HUSSNAIN

KARACHI: The Chairman of National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), Lt. Gen. Tanvir Hussain Naqvi (Retd), said on Tuesday that provincial finance commissions (PFC) would be set up to look after the financial needs of the respective district governments.

He was speaking at a discussion programme on devolution of power at district level organised by 'Jang Forum'. Others who participated in the discussion included Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, president, PPP Sindhs; Senator Iqbal Haider (PPP), Senator Aftab Ahmed Shaikh (MQM); Prof. Ghafoor Ahmed, Naib Amir Jamaat-e- Islami; Rasool Buksh Palejo, president of Awami Tehreek; Gulzar Soomro, Taraqi Pasand Tehreek; and a former mayor of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Abdul Sattar Afghani.

Naqvi said the district governments would pool their resources to make the provincial finance commission a viable institution.

He said the National Finance Commission had run into difficulties and remained an object of criticism for smaller provinces. The NFC had no visible political influence, it had no mechanism of fiscal transfers and suffered from inconsistencies, he added.

Naqvi said the proposed PFCs would provide answers to a number of problems. They would provide finances to district governments to manage their affairs under a self-management system. He also pointed out, "Such a system where district governments are in place is in existence in more that 15 countries. It is functioning smoothly. We have the statistics and the process can be initiated."

However, he said PFC was not the answer to the problems of poverty.

He said the district governments would draw their own programme to collect revenue and generate new sources of funds to make their government self-sufficient.

Tanvir said all taxation measures would be transparent. All taxation proposals made by the district government would be made public before their enforcement through budgetary proposals.

He said, "There would be public debate and formulation of opinion on taxation proposals. Public leaders would be there to explain the necessity of a particular tax and they would motivate people to cooperate with the district government. It all would depend on the credibility of the leaders, effectiveness of the proposals and trust of the people in the system."

Naqvi said the district government would be cheaper to maintain as it would curtail the overall expenditure to one-fourth of what it is today "The over all expenditure of a provincial government would be one-fourth of what it is today."

He said one document spread over 50 to 100 pages and containing all the necessary details was being prepared at the NRB and would be made public by the mid-April.

Naqvi discussed in detail the concept of district government, devolution of power, decentralisation and deconstruction of functions and adoption of a system which could prevent degeneration of democracy into autocracy.

All other speakers expressed their doubts about the success of the concept of district governments and proposed restoration of the existing local bodies system. They said the introduction of the new system would demand changes in the constitution which the government had said it would not to change.

They urged to the government to restore democracy and hand over the power to the elected representatives of the people to take care of the rest. There is growing sense of alienation among the smaller provinces and people feel deprived of their basic rights, they said. They said the discontentment would lead to dismemberment of Pakistan and that should be prevented at all costs.