Murad accuses Centre of deducting Rs32bn from divisible funds

KARACHI: The federal government, in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan and Supreme Court decision, has deducted Rs31.9 billion out of Rs35 billion at source from a 15-day fiscal share of the Sindh government and released only Rs3 billion to the province in an attempt to cripple the provincial government financially.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said this on Friday during a meeting with editors of newspapers and directors of news channels at the CM House. He briefed the senior media persons about what he said the discriminatory attitude of the federal government towards Sindh. He talked about issues such as at source deduction from the Sindh government’s fiscal share, water and gas shortage and imposition of unilateral rotation policy for government servants.

He also discussed price hike, unemployment, economic crisis, curbs on media, and others problems, stating that Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had been raising such issues and he would lead a long march from Karachi to Islamabad starting February 27 to highlight these problems.

Talking about at source deduction from the share of the Sindh government, the CM said the federal government had to transfer Rs35 billion (share of 15 days from Feb 1 to Feb 15) but it deducted Rs32 billion and transferred only Rs3 billion, which was aimed at crippling the provincial government financially.

Shah said that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on March 13, 2014, in connection with the Cross Input tax Adjustment, which meant that the taxpayers would be allowed to adjust their sales tax return based on the input tax paid in the other’s jurisdiction.

The CM maintained that such cross-adjustments were supposed to be scrutinised and reconciled, after which the net amount was payable to the administration in whose return higher quantum of cross-adjustment was made.

“This arrangement gave rise to some serious differences [between the Centre and Sindh]; therefore, another agreement was signed in August 2016 to implement the MOU,” he said.

He added that a joint committee as laid down in the MOU was also formed and a series of meetings were also held. He remarked that the MOU also took care of the situation where some amount went disputed and in such a case, it was agreed that the disputed/un-reconciled amount would be referred to an accounting committee.

Shah said that in disregard of the laid down procedures, the FBR had on its own determined a net amount of Rs31.978 billion payable by the SRB by rejecting the latter’s valid claim of Rs42.5 billion against different heads.

“Not only that, on the basis of such unilateral working and in sheer violation of the articles of the MoU and agreed parameters, the FBR with the approval of the federal finance minister has unilaterally slashed the share of Sindh province from the NFC,” he said.

He remarked, “The FBR’s such biased and arbitrary move has created disharmony and distrust between the Centre and Sindh, which will affect the harmonisation process of taxation and number of allied steps being taken under the umbrella of the National Tax Council and NFC”.

The CM lamented that on a similar account, the federal government had dispensed with an amount of approximately Rs40 billion to two PTI-ruled provinces without any deductions.

Water and gas

The CM said that under the 1991 Water Accord, the provinces had to share water surplus as well as shortages in accordance with the formula agreed on, but during the ongoing shortage, Sindh had been deprived of its due share.

He said that in the 1991 accord, a formula was agreed upon for water distribution among the provinces. “For every 10 days, there is an allocation of water for every province and in case of shortage or surplus of water, water is shared as per the agreed-upon formula,” he explained.

Under the accord, the Indus River System Authority was created to implement the agreement in true letter and spirit, but it had failed to do its job judiciously, he stated.

The CM said the Council of Common Interests (CCI) had delegated then attorney general Anwar Mansoor to study the grievances of Sindh and recommend legal position but the prime minister on the request of the Punjab chief secretary did not approve the report.

Talking about natural gas, the CM said the constitution guaranteed the right of the people of the province where the gas was produced but the federal government had denied this right of the people of Sindh.

Shah remarked that recently, the Sui Southern Gas Company slashed 15 per cent of gas of Sindh, against which a case had been filed in court. He added that his stand was very clear that the gas-deficient provinces should be given RLNG. “Why the PTI government was forcing Sindh to get RLNG by taking away its gas,” he said.

Census

The CM said that since its inception in 1973, the CCI had taken all the decisions with consensus except for its recent decision on the census, against which the Sindh government had written a dissenting note.

He said the controversial census of 2017 had shown 47.8 million population of the province whereas its population, as per a UNICEF survey, stood at 61.04 million. Shah deplored that he had sent a reference to the speaker of the National Assembly to discuss the matter of census in the joint session of the parliament, but it was denied.

Rotation policy

He said the federal government had imposed a unilateral transfer/posting rotation policy for federal officers working in the province. He explained that under the policy, the Centre had transferred officers from Sindh and was forcing them to relinquish the charge and join their new place of posting.

Under the law, the officers could not relinquish the charge until and unless the provincial government did not relieve them of their duties, he maintained.

Shah informed the editors that his government was already facing shortage of officers and if the officers posted in Sindh were relieved, there would be a crisis-like situation in the provincial administration.

He added that when he did not relieve federal officers, the federal government started withdrawing them forcibly.