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Pakistan has made “meaningful” progress on fiscal federalism since 2010; however, deviations from “international norms” and “good practices” remain, including in the current federal–provincial transfer arrangements, the World Bank said in a report released on Tuesday.
In its report titled “Strengthening Fiscal Federalism in Pakistan”, the WB highlighted four critical dimensions in which Pakistan lacked in terms of fiscal federalism.
“First, expenditure assignments remain incompletely implemented and inadequately defined in some areas,” the report said and highlighted that the government continued to “operate” in constitutionally devolved areas despite the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
It added that the involvement had caused waste and blurred “accountability”, while local governments lack clearly defined or adequately resourced functional mandates.
