LAHORE: The four provinces have reached a consensus on the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award here on Friday.

The decision was made at a meeting attended by chief ministers of the four provinces.
The issue of NFC Award had been lingering on for 19 years which has now been resolved with unanimity and an accommodating approach of the provinces.

However, the federation has made historic sacrifices over the division of national resources among the provinces. The federation has raised the provinces share by 8.5 percent.

In a joint media conference here at Chief Minister House, Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and the four chief ministers said that the federation has raised the share of provinces in the divisible pool from 47.5 percent to 56 percent.

The distribution of resources under the new formula will be made from the next financial year. The distribution will be made on the basis of multiple-criteria – population (82 percent); poverty and backwardness (10.6 percent) and; revenue and other factors will form the rest of the percentage.

The Punjab will get 51.74 percent from the total of 56 percent share of the divisible pool; Sindh 24.24 percent; NWFP 14.6 and; Balochistan will receive 9 percent of the provinces share.

Balochistan will be given Rs83 billion in view of its special needs while the Federal government will meet all the expenses of the ongoing war against terrorism.

On the occasion Shaukat Tarin said that Sales Tax is a provincial matter, so the provinces will levy taxes in this regard on their own discretion.