But the provinces found the IMF demand unrealistic and linked the cash surplus with the additional revenues that they will receive from the Centre under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award in the next fiscal year. As against the IMF’s demand of over Rs430 billion cash surplus, the finance ministry also expects that the four provinces may generate cash surplus of around Rs275 billion or 0.6% of the GDP. The provinces were inclined to accept the finance ministry’s cash surplus demand but they linked it too with the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) ability to collect more taxes. “What provinces can’t afford is to reduce their provincial budgets from this year’s levels for the sake of generating cash surpluses,” said the K-P Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra. Jhagra said the cash surpluses must come from the additional tax revenues to be generated by the FBR next year.

Source: The Express Tribune May 05, 2019 03:22 UTC