In the terminal year of 7th National Finance Commission Award, the political competition for development among provincial governments is picking up while the capacity constraints at new centres of power and money seem to give diverging messages in the 2014-15 provincial budgets.
The provinces’ cumulative share in the federal divisible pool has increased from 45pc in 2009-10 to about 58pc now — almost 13pc increase in five years —, providing a quantum jump in resources to the federating units but their inability to spend these funds is quite evident from Rs257 billion cash surplus returned by the four provinces to the centre during the current fiscal year.
Based on this, the federal government is anticipating a provincial surplus of Rs289bn next year.
