NTC established under Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act 1996 is mandated to provide ICT services to Federal Government, Armed forces, Defense projects, Provincial Governments and to all Government Institutions (autonomous/semi-autonomous bodies etc. In accordance with Rule 41(7) Rule (8) of Pakistan Telecommunications (Re-organization) Act, 19%, NTC shall, prepare its budget and submit it for approval of the Federal Government before the 1st June every year. NTC got approval of its budget upto 2016-17 from the Finance Division.
Accordingly, NTC submitted its proposed budget 2017-18 to the Ministry of Information Technology after its approval from NTC Audit Committee and Management Board for its subsequent approval from Finance Division.
However, in the wake of Supreme Court of Pakistan''s Judgment made in Civil Appeal No. 1428-1436 circulated vide Law and Justice Division''s U.O No. 11(8)/2017-LR, Finance Division returned the NTC''s budget for the year 2017-18 with remarks that NTC was a self-earning organization and Finance Division had neither any role in budget preparation process of NTC nor provided any budgetary grant. Therefore, the approval of Finance Division, in particular, is not required. However, the approval from the Federal Cabinet would be required in the light of Supreme Court of Pakistan''s above referred judgment.
Ministry of Information Technology and Telecomm-unication submitted NTC''s budget estimates for the financial year 2018-19 and revised estimates for the FY 2017-18 and case for approval of NTC''s to the Federal Cabinet for its consideration. However, Federal Cabinet has considered the proposals and directed that the proposals may be placed before the ECC of the Cabinet for detailed scrutiny and be resubmitted to the Cabinet in light of ECC''s recommendations.
The sources said, the ECC will go through the budget estimates of NTC and finalise its recommendations for the federal cabinet for final approval.
The ECC will also consider a summary of Power Division regarding AJ&K tariff, according to which the federal government has decided to charge AJ&K domestic consumers using 1-100 units at par with those of other power Distribution Companies (Discos) whereas bulk power supply will be made from CPPA-G as is being done in case of K-Electric as per tariff determination by Nepra,
Power Division has submitted the following recommendations in order to resolve the long outstanding issues: (i) Nepra''s determined tariff for 1-100 unit slab of domestic category will be applicable for AJ&K from January 1, 2018, currently which is Rs.5.79/kWh. Difference between bulk supply tariff and 1-100 unit tariff will be provided by Finance Division. The arrangement will continue till next Nepra tariff determination of 2018-19; (ii) bulk power supply to AJ&K may be made from CPPA-G as is being done in case of K-Electric as per tariff determination by Nepra; (iii) Finance Division may provide sufficient budget for AJ&K electricity bill. Appropriate provisioning in AJ&K budget will eliminate any financial built up or need for electricity subsidy for AJ&K; and (iv) Finance Division may frame a mechanism for clearing the stock of dues which have piled up from 2011 onwards.