Policies, Reforms and Laws for Higher HSI • Local Price Control committees under the Deputy Commissioner must be revived. Ease of Doing Business • Transition to a digital economy. Government agencies must take the load in the digitalization of a wide range of transactions. • Rationalization of small withholding taxes. Strengthening the Federation There is a need for full implementation of the 18 th Amendment as follows: • Small Divisions can be merged with larger Divisions in the Federal Government. This will bring down the number of divisions by over a dozen. • Vertical Federal programs related to functions in Federal Legislative List-II should be financed jointly by the Federal and Provincial Governments. This includes Federal spending on health, higher education, and population planning. • Management of Regulatory Functions is in FLL-II. Therefore, all boards of Regulatory Agencies must have representation of each Province. The Annual Report of each Agency should be reported to the CCI. • Labor-related functions have been transferred to Provincial Governments in the 18 th Amendment. Therefore, the EOBI and revenues of the Workers’ Welfare Fund(WWF) may be transferred to these Governments with an appropriate sharing formula, like collection. Rightsizing the Federal Government Devolution of functions to Provincial Governments after the 18 th Amendment has not led to a significant contraction in the Federal Government. The employment in the Secretariat, autonomous bodies, and attached departments is almost 1 million. There are 40 Divisions and 33 Ministries. The State-Owned Enterprises(SOEs) imposed a big net burden of Rs 1525 billion on the Federal Budget in 2021-22. The recommendations include the following: • Undertaking exercise on‘zero-base’ budgeting of attached departments and autonomous bodies. • Privatization of SOEs as per the recent Triage Report of MOF, highlighted in Chapter 14. 129