Bilawal offers fiscal help to Centre, says provinces can raise more revenue if empowered

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has urged the federal government to devolve greater fiscal responsibilities to the provinces, insisting that provincial governments (particularly Sindh) could collect more taxes than the targets assigned to the Center if they were empowered to do so.

According to Express News, Bilawal made the comments during the inauguration on Friday of a newly constructed technologically advanced OPD block at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi.

Addressing the ceremony, he criticized certain federal ministers who he said sought to roll back the powers and financial autonomy granted to the provinces after the 18th Amendment, citing the current economic crisis. These challenges, he stressed, “belong to everyone” and should not be used as a pretext to undermine provincial rights.

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He said that if the Center delegates greater responsibilities to the provinces, they are capable of carrying them out effectively. “The people of Sindh are patriotic Pakistanis who want to contribute more to the country and have the ability to do so,” he added.

Referring to the sales tax on services (originally collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) before being transferred under the 18th Amendment), Bilawal noted that Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa surpassed the FBR’s previous records after the authority was moved to the provinces. The performance, he said, showed that provinces “cannot only collect taxes more efficiently than the federal government, but can also help ease the Centre’s financial burden.”

Reiterating his offer to the federal government, Bilawal said the PPP-led Sindh government was willing to collect additional taxes on behalf of the Centre. He said that if authorized to collect general sales tax and given a target, Sindh would meet it and transfer the entire amount to Islamabad.

“If the target is not achieved, Sindh will even contribute its own share to help reduce the financial challenges of the federal government,” he said, adding that any amount raised beyond the target will be spent on the people of Sindh.

Bilawal said the economic crisis indicated that federal institutions had struggled to fulfill their responsibilities.

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He also praised the NICVD for providing free and world-class cardiac care, saying the institution had gained global recognition, noting that critics of the 18th Amendment and provincial financial autonomy often ignored the performance of public sector institutions such as the NICVD, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH).

He said the PPP, in line with its manifesto, continued to provide free modern medical facilities to people at its doors. Bilawal added that NICVD had become the world’s largest completely free cardiac treatment network, calling its success the strongest response to those who saw the 18th Amendment or provincial autonomy as a mistake.