Hesitation to share data with provinces

Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Energy has expressed its inability to share real-time data on oil and gas at the request of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Sindh governments ostensibly for technical reasons. The technical reasons were not elaborated upon when this newspaper asked the Petroleum Division for a clarification which, in turn, has prompted many to conclude that the reason for not providing real-time data is due to the federal government's concern that it may lead to a re-evaluation of the royalties on oil and gas due to these two provinces. Given the extent of the projected budgeted revenue shortfall and the expenditure rise in the current election year it is extremely doubtful if the Centre would accede to the provinces' demand.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar did not shy away from maintaining time and again during his current tenure that the eighteenth amendment as well as the 2010 National Finance Commission award, exercises undertaken during the tenure of the PPP-led coalition government but in which Dar himself reportedly played a pivotal role, resulted in revenue associated with the Federal Consolidated Fund to be skewed in favour of the provinces while the Centre's expenditure on the devolved subjects did not decline. This, critics argued, led to his delaying the NFC award due in 2015 and may well account for the refusal of the Petroleum Division to share real-time data with provinces.
Each year the budget document cites the amount payable to each province in each financial year as a share of the net proceeds notably: (i) "of the total royalties on crude oil an amount which relates to the total net proceeds in the same proportion as the production of crude oil in the province in that year bears to the total production of crude oil", and (ii) with respect to natural gas the net proceeds of development surcharge to be worked out based on average rate per mmbtu of the respective province. The average rate per mmbtu shall be derived by notionally clubbing both the royalty on natural gas and development surcharge on gas. Royalty on natural gas shall be distributed in accordance with clause (1) of Article 161 of the Constitution whereas the development surcharge on natural gas would be distributed by making adjustments based on the average rate."
Article (1) 161 of the constitution stipulates with respect to natural gas and hydroelectric power that: (a) the net proceeds of the Federal Excise Duty (FED) on natural gas levied at well-head and collected by the Federal Government and of the royalty collected by the Federal Government, shall not form part of the Federal Consolidated Fund and shall be paid to the Province in which the well-head of natural gas is situated; (b) the net proceeds of FED on oil levied at well-head and collected by the Federal Government, shall not form part of the Federal Consolidated Fund and shall be paid to the Province in which the well-head of oil is situated".
To conclude, there is no doubt that the federal government does have the data and therefore its refusal to share it with the provinces raises serious concerns with respect to the possibility of the federal government violating not only the constitution but reneging on what was agreed in the last NFC award and what it cites in every budget document. This issue is yet another matter which requires urgent remedial measures as it is fuelling mistrust between the centre and its federating units; however, with the Finance Minister's continued absence from the country, there does not appear to be any focus on resolving such matters.