An official said that most of the agenda items were deferred; however, sources said that provinces have protested against taking decisions on the issues falling under the Article 154 of Constitution from other forums. The Sindh chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah sources claimed, stated that LNG import, as well as a gas and hydel fall, is in the domain of CCI but decisions on some issues are being taken at the forum of Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. They further claimed that a committee may be constituted on the reservations of provinces.
The chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak, sources said, also raised the issue of net hydel profit. The CCI approved amendments to the ''Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997,'' however, on an amendment designed to clip NEPRA''s power, a committee has been constituted with minister for water and power as convenor and chief ministers of provinces as members.
Considering the inquiry report into corruption charges, the CCI unanimously decided that exemplary punishment must be given to all the officials who were involved in Kacchi Canal project corruption. The Prime Minister pointed out that development projects in the past were never completed timely and consequently cost over-run is a matter of routine as well as burden on the national exchequer. He underscored the read for executing and competing project within approved costs while ensuring transparency and doing away with the tendency of PC-I revision.
The CCI directed all provincial representatives to hold a meeting with Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal to finalise the matters pertaining to higher education and other similar bodies inpost-18th Amendment scenario. The CCI also approved the financing of National Flood Protection Plan Phase-IV at an overall cost of Rs 177.661 billion and the cost would be equally (50:50) shared by the federal and provincial governments. The CCI expressed satisfaction over the 6th Population and Housing Census. The Ministry of Finance assured that census would be completed within the scheduled timeline with utmost transparency.
The Ministry of Climate Change briefed the meeting that detailed consultations on National Forest Policy 2015 have been completed with all provinces. Forest, itself being a provincial subject, shall remain under the control of provincial governments for purposes of implementation.
The minister for water and power informed the CCI that issues regarding settlement of net hydel profit (NHP) between Wapda and the government of Punjab have been settled wherein Wapda has issued a promissory note amounting to Rs 38.12 billion in favour of the government of Punjab while a tariff petition is under review for filing with Nepra for recovery of NHP arrears.
The meeting was attended by chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Balochistan, while secretary Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Division briefed the meeting regarding implementation status of decisions taken in the last CCI meeting held on 16th December 2016.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017