PTI govt?s Finance Bill 2019-20 sails through NA
 

By News DeskISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) on Friday passed the Finance Bill 2019-20, bringing to effect the tax-heavy proposals of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government without much resistance from the opposition.The total outlay of the budget is Rs7.022 trillion, focusing on fiscal consolidation, revenue mobilisation, austerity measures and protection to the vulnerable segments of society.At the start of the proceedings, Minister of State for Revenue and Finance Hammad Azhar moved a motion to present the bill before the House for consideration. After verbal voting on the motion, the opposition challenged the vote and asked NA Speaker Asad Qaiser for a headcount.One hundred seventy-six (176) members of the treasury benches favoured the motion while 146 opposition members opposed it. After the motion was passed with a majority, Hammad Azhar introduced the Finance Bill which was passed by the House with a majority of votes. Members of National Assembly Shahida Rehmani, Abdul Qadir Patel, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Shazia Marri, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Shahbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Shagufta Jumani, Dr Nafeesa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Ali Pervaiz, Shahida Akhtar Ali and others moved amendments in the bill.The amendments were related to changes in tax rates and Finance Bill, tax exemptions and abolition of interest on bonds. While debating the amendments, Shahida Rehmani said the tax collected from Islamabad should be spent on the city for provision of drinking water and other basic amenities. She suggested changes in the income tax ordinance to benefit overseas Pakistanis who buy property abroad. Abdul Akbar Chitrali said taxes on those providing professional services would burden consumers so it should be withdrawn. He said taxes on essential food items should be brought down.Rehmani, along with Shazia Marri and Mehreen Razaq Bhutto, seconded Chitrali’s demand to reduce taxes on food items — including sugar and juices — and construction material like cement and steel.Nisar Ahmed Cheema and Chitrali sought a tax relief for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including Al Khidmat Foundation and Rawalpindi’s Eye Donors Organisation (Redo).Ali Pervaiz and Shagufta Jumani demanded that the tax relief given by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government to the salaried class in its last year should be restored. Jumani said consumers were paying a sales tax on every item they purchase from the market.Abdul Qadir Patel asked for a tax exemption for teachers and researchers while Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said tax should be reduced for cottage industry as the banks were not giving it loans. He wanted the removal of federal excise duty on edible oil and lower taxes on local liquefied natural gas and smaller cars.Shazia Marri said she wanted concessions for Thar Coal as was decided in a meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in 2010. The Thar Coal electricity projects should be exempted from taxes. “The taxes would increase cost of coal production that in turn would increase power rates,” she noted.Dr Nafisa Shah proposed an amendment in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, saying a delay in tax refunds blocked investment and it was unconstitutional to ask exporters to take bonds instead of refunds. The treasury benches rejected almost all the amendments to the bill moved by opposition members after a debate. Amendments moved by Hammad Azhar were adopted by the house.Prime Minister Imran Khan along with federal ministers of PTI and allied parties sat through the session spread over many hours while opposition led by Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the session with full strength.During the voting, NA Speaker Qaiser on various occasions urged the members to refrain from raising slogans, observe decorum of the house and desist from making videos from their mobile phones. At times, the members from across the aisle squabbled over rules according to which the speaker runs the house.In his speech, the Minister of State for Revenue said due to “economic hitmanship” of the previous two governments, the country’s economy plunged into a deep crisis. “During the tenure of previous government, public sector entities’ losses surged from Rs123 billion to over Rs500 billion, gas sector losses increased to Rs150 billion, exports declined by $1.5 billion, and increase of only two per cent tax-to-GDP ratio was recorded in previous 10 years,” he said.Azhar said due to the prudent policies of the incumbent government, the trade deficit plunged by over $4 billion, and although in terms of value, exports remained stagnant during the year 2018-19 but in terms of volume, readymade garments’ exports only witnessed an increase of 30 per cent.He said the government has targeted that tax-to-GDP ratio would be increased by 4 per cent within three years. The minister of state said debt-to-GDP ratio which kept on increasing during previous 10 years would come down for the first time in country.He dispelled the impression that the government had imposed new taxes on food items saying that new taxes were imposed only on processed food, fruits, meat and vegetables “which are only consumed by the rich”.He explained that no new tax on ghee and wheat flour was imposed, but instead the government had adjusted some taxes “in different heads” which “apparently gives the impression that sales tax on ghee has been increased” from existing 16 per cent to 17 per cent.With respect to tax on sugar, he said the opposition members “are creating misconception” that additional tax of Rs20 per kg of the commodity had been imposed “which is wrong”. “The government has imposed only Rs3.5 per kg tax on sugar,” he said, adding if the government had not levied this tax, the opposition would have “created a mess that the government was favouring the sugar mills owners”.Explaining the new taxes being imposed on the salaried class, he said during the previous two governments, an amount of Rs5,000 income tax was being paid by a person who was taking a salary of Rs100,000 whereas this government had fixed a tax of only Rs2,500 on income of Rs100,000.He clarified that in the upcoming budget, new taxes were imposed “only for the rich and lower income people will not be affected by the budget”. Hammad Azhar said the government would continue taking action against gas and electricity theft in the country. He said Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan “has done a great job” by ensuring additional revenues of Rs82 billion in the power sector.Meanwhile, responding to amendments proposed by opposition members, Hammad Azhar said if someone wanted that Al Khidmat foundation and Rawalpindi Eye Donors should be given tax-free status, an application should be filed with the FBR in this regard.He said this needed a process and could not be amended in a single day as there were already some clauses of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on some NGOs and “some of them were also caught in financing terrorism”.Moreover, he said refunds could not be issued within 30 days as it needed due diligence after verification of documents, however, he said the refund process would be made “as speedy as possible”.With respect to Shazia Marri’s call for amending a clause to exempt Thar Coal power plant from tax on dividends, Hammad said all IPPs were uniformly treated in taxation structure, however, he said if she wanted a separate preferential taxation system for the project, she should provide all the required documents after the budget, and the government would seriously consider the request.He said refund scheme through bonds was only a sales tax scheme for exporters and it did not apply on the common people. “Even for exporters it is a voluntary scheme and not bound to them to get the bonds,” he said, adding this scheme was helpful for those who wanted immediate clearance on pending refunds which were stuck up for 4-5 years.He said this was not unconstitutional as this practice was being utilised in all over the word, and securitisation on government debts and government refunds was a normal routine all over the world. He explained that previous government had also announced the extension of the facility but it could not finalise the scheme. “But we have done it and already issued bonds of Rs7 billion and a total of Rs45 billion refunds would be issued under this scheme.”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/5nrBuVjYYGc

أكثر...