President Dr Arif Alvi has constituted the tenth National Finance Commission (NFC) to ensure just distribution of resources between the Centre and the four federating units.
The president has constituted the NFC under Article 160(1) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The Finance Division has notified the new 10-member Commission. Finance Advisor Hafeez Sheikh will be the chairman of NFC which will comprise the four provincial finance ministers.
Under the constitution, the president has to announce a new NFC after every five years.
President Dr Arif Alvi last year reconstituted the ninth National Finance Commission (NFC).
The NFC Award is a constitutional obligation. It is clearly indicated in the Article 160 of the “Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973” that it has been made mandatory for the government to compose NFC Award at an interval extending not more than five years for the amicable resource distribution among the federation and its respective units.
Provinces then also re-distribute revenues among lower tiers of the government through a revenue-sharing formula through PFC Awards.
The central government collects most of the revenues and then redistribute vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the provinces.
Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula known as Provincial Finance Commission (PFC).