Royalties on oil and gas: Provinces decide to write letter to PM for NFC meeting

Provinces have decided to write a letter to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to convene a meeting on new National Finance Commission (NFC), will demand to give right to collect Royalties on Oil and Gas and sales tax on goods to the provinces, next week.
A review meeting was held under the chairmanship of non-statuary member of Sindh Senator Saleem Mandviwala to finalise the points raised in Working Group-of the 9the NFC meeting held in September in Lahore.
Senator Saleem Mandviwala said, "Sindh has demanded that Federal Government should give right to the provinces to collect their royalties on Oil and Gas in the new NFC.
Provinces should be allowed to collect these royalties on Oil and Gas instead of federal government to collect and distribute among the provinces. Provinces are not aware of the collection of these royalties because the federal government is not giving any details of royalties on Oil and Gas.
"The meeting also reviewed the earlier demand of provinces to collect sales tax on goods and reiterated that provinces must also be given the right of collecting sales tax on goods-it's their basic right which is being denied after the 18th amendment," added Senator Saleem Mandviwala.
Senator Saleem Mandviwala said that "All the four provinces will write a letter jointly to the Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, to convene a meeting on new NFC, at earliest, so that talks could be started with the federal government.
Senator Saleem Mandviwala has criticised the federal government on delaying the new NFC, it seems that federal government is not interested in new NFC, The PM should intervene into the matter, it's the 4th year the federal government is not even convening a meeting on new NFC which shows it is depriving provinces from their constitutional right. It will create more deprivation among the smaller provinces which will have far-reaching impacts.-PR