Federal transfers to provinces on the rise.

Byline: Nasir Jamal

LAHORE -- The quantum of federal transfers from the divisible tax pool to provinces under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award appears to be gradually increasing this fiscal year with Punjab reporting a handsome growth in its share of 16.8 per cent to Rs291 billion till Oct 17 from a year ago.

'The pace of growth in the federal transfers to the provinces is picking up with the passage of each month,' a Punjab finance department official told Dawn on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.

Punjab received 3pc more funds in July, the first month of the financial year, compared with the same month last fiscal year. The increase was recorded at 8pc in August and 10pc in September.

Punjab receives 17pc more so far this fiscal year

The rising federal transfers to the federating units are attributed to improved collection of taxes by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) during the current fiscal year.

On Sept 30, FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi took to Twitter to announce that the board had achieved 90pc of the tax target for the first quarter of the year. He said the domestic tax collection of Rs960bn during July-September was 25pc higher than the corresponding period last year.

The budget is targeting a growth of 44pc in FBR tax collection to Rs5.5 trillion at the close of the current fiscal under the $6bn bailout package from the IMF. However, few expect the government to achieve the...