Mahfooz Ali Khan
During deliberations of 6th NFC, the President Musharraf constituted one man committee to discuss gas arrears and gas revenue distribution formula issues of Balochistan and come up with recommendations, so that long lingering and pestering issue is resolved once for all. The Senator Dilawar Abbas was made the chairman or head of this committee. It is to be mentioned here that this NFC could not reach to a consensus decision and the Award was given through presidential order as per constitutional provision.
7th NFC Award and resultant acceptance of our claim of Rs.140 billion proved that stand of Balochistan was right
In NFC, first tax revenue is divided between provinces and the federation, and this division is known as Vertical Distribution. Once this is decided then provinces are supposed to agree about Horizontal distribution among themselves. If they reach to a consensus decision then award is announced, otherwise it is given through Presidential order. In 6th NFC, provinces could not reach to a consensus decision as they got entangled about distribution formula. Punjab didn’t budge to accept any distribution that included factors other than population. Naturally it favored it. Sindh wanted bigger chunk based on Revenue Collection. Balochistan wanted increase in its share beyond traditional 5% based on population. We wanted area and poverty to be factored in. Despite many weeks’ protracted deliberations, provinces could not reach to a unanimous decision. And the president had to intervene, as three provinces requested him to decide the issue.
Balochistan was going through very critical financial position and could not manage day to day expenses. It was getting deeper in Overdraft from State Bank of Pakistan and expensive SAP loans, about which I will write separately. So we were pressing for payment of arrears of gas, revision of gas pricing and distribution formula, which was injurious to the interests of Balochistan. Even our Royalty and GDS was being diverted to Sindh and Sindh was not ready to negotiate the issue bilaterally.
So, the President deputed Senator Dilawar Abbas to find a sustainable solution of the long outstanding issue. He visited Quetta twice and our team under Finance Minister went to Islamabad. He didn’t agree to our stand point and was not ready to propose revision of gas revenue distribution formula, because Sindh was adamant to change it. Finally he proposed to us to give one and a half billion a year extra money against our claim provided we were ready to give up our claim. That proposal was not acceptable to me and Finance Minister, although our CM and others were favorably inclined to this arrangement. He was annoyed to our insistence and threatened to report to the PM and the President that we two were creating a deadlock. We told him that without giving up our claim we could take the additional amount. He became furious and reported this to the PM, Shaukat Aziz through a DO letter, about our refusal. The PM called the Finance Minister and asked him to settle the issue as proposed by the Senator. The Finance Minister reiterated his stance, as we two never wanted to betray the trust reposed in us.
At times it is difficult to take a stand under pressure but if one is convinced and controls the nerves, is eventually rewarded
The 7th NFC Award and resultant acceptance of our claim of Rs.140 billion proved that our stand was right. Had we agreed to that Balochistan would have lost the claim for ever and history would have never forgiven us. Not only we succeeded in getting arrears but we also got the formula of distribution changed that increased our gas revenue by Rs 3 billion annually for future as well. Later, all those who blamed us for not accepting the deal got convinced that we were right.
At times it is difficult to take a stand under pressure but if one is convinced and controls the nerves, is eventually rewarded. From hind side it seems easy but at that moment in time it was a game of nerves and fear was lurking inside. Thanks God, we didn’t cave in under pressure.
Note: This is first part of series of articles to be written by the author.
Writer is former Secretary Finance of Government of Balochistan.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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