Without parliament?s approval, ***tax can be imposed: Rabbani

[ahlam1399]

Without parliament?s approval, ***tax can be imposed: Rabbani

Farhatullah Babar points out CII has completed its task and is deemed to be disbanded

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani has made it clear that Without the approval of parliament, the government can**t impose tax worth a single penny.

Rabbani made this statement in the Senate, which witnessed an unusual development when treasury lawmakers joined their colleagues on the opposition benches on Tuesday to allege the new budget had completely ig**red the smaller provinces and that hardly any allocation was made for the Western Route of the China-Pakistan Eco**mic Corridor (CPEC). The government was also blasted for failing to form a new NFC.

Senators’ budget speeches mainly reflected, among other issues, three major trends: the PSDP portion of the budget should be passed by the Senate; institutions and subjects under the Federal Legislstive List, Part-II, be approved by the Council of Common Interests and **t by the federal cabinet and the Senate should have its own public accounts committee.

PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar proposed that the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) be disbanded and the Rs100 million allocated to it be transferred to the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and said there was ** need for a parallel body being setup under an executive order and massive allocations made for it.

The Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Senator Usman Kakar turned out to be a harsh critic of the budget, who alleged politicians of a province (Punjab) always imposed their decisions on the rest of Pakistan and said this way, the federating units should be treated equally. “Politicians of Lahore and Islamabad’s bureaucrats are opposed to 18th constitutional amendment and want its reversal,” he **ted.

He said the wealth and resources of small provinces were being used by a particular province and **w the CPEC was also aimed at benefiting it while Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being ig**red. He tried to draw circumstances between the Centre and smaller provinces, which prevailed in erstwhile East Pakistan and led to creation of Bangladesh.

Kakar lamented the foreign and interior policy were also framed by the establishment and never the Parliament was allowed to devise them. He said all i.e. the President, Prime Minister, the army chief, the judges and lawmakers should be made to abide by the rule of law and the Constitution. He said the looters of national wealth and resources deserved hell.

Taking part in the budget debate, PPP’s Farhatullah Babar said that the CII had already submitted its final report to the parliament in 1997 and had become dangerously irrelevant. “It has ** constitutional role to play and frustrated with its controversial pro**uncements some people call it “medieval **n-sense at public expense,” he **ted. He also took exception to the allocation of Rs250 million made for a new body National Institute of Human Rights being set up under an executive order. “There already existed National Commission of Human Rights Commission (NCHR) set up under an Act of the Parliament as an independent, powerful and auto**mous body,” he said.

“The Act provides for a special Fund to enable the Commission perform its functions and said that Rs 250 million allocated to the new body be transferred to this special fund,” he said.

On this, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani referred the matter to the Senate Finance Committee directing it to examine the issue of setting up a parallel human rights body for what he said ‘some blue eyed boy’ of PML-N. Senator Babar said that the federation had been gravely undermined by making the CPEC controversial and **ted this was evident from the allocations made and pace of work on each the western and eastern routes of the Corridor. He warned against the decisions taken at the May 28, 2015 APC under the Prime Minister. He said that he did **t blame the Finance Minster for **t being able to give a welfare budget. “We are a security driven state, where every issues is viewed from the prism of security and **t welfare of the people,” he said.

The Balochistan National Party (Mengal’s) Dr Jehanzaib Jamaldeni said Balochistan’s number one problem was acute shortage of water, as ground level was plunging massively, underscoring urgent need for building water reservoirs both for irrigation and cheap power generation. “I wonder should I make some demands regarding budget or speak on falling bodies of people of my province,” he said.

He complained the commitment of 50 percent share of natural resources going to his province had **t been met and said the demand for provincial auto**my had pushed them to what level today. He called for immediate launch of projects of water conservation in his province. He added they had been listening about building of six dams but **ne of them had been constructed so far.

Vice President PPP Senator Sherry Rehman rejected the budget, alleging it was made by the government of one province and from a**ther century. “The federal budget is **rmally a vision statement that lays out development priorities for the entire federation, but this one is an accounting exercise which fudges figures and misuses the Finance Bill to subvert the spirit of the 18th Amendment and the National Finance Award," she asserted.

"This government has **t only used the budget and its powers to undermine the historic social contract instituted between the federation and the provinces in the PPP government, but is also actually insidious in its attempts to erode the will of the Constitution and the decisions of the NFC award by trying to remove the power of the provinces to collect sales tax in the service sector via a clause in the Finance Bill,” she elaborated.

The PPP senator said that this would impact Sindh, which had raised Rs 49 billion this year in taxes, and was way ahead of others in registering enhanced tax receipts by 29 percent and transparency via digital documentation protocols.

"The federal government is **t only delaying transfers from the federal divisible pool regularly and deliberately, but also forcing the provinces to show surplus budgets by 13 percent in their accounting exercise so they are less eligible for funds," she added.

Sherry remarked, “Their pointed slow-down of federal transfers, low development outlays, and attempts to cut tax powers of the province amounts to a violation of the spirit of the NFC award, which has been inexplicably delayed by over three years”.

“This is how budgets were made in the 1990s, **t the devolved Pakistan. If the federal government wants to revert to the budgets of a**ther century, then they will lose their mandate to govern the federation. The dangers of such an approach are obviously lost on a leadership that has ig**red contemporary Pakistan’s needs,” she said.

She lambasted the government for ig**ring the one-third of Pakistan that was **w officially under the poverty line, saying that it was the PPP government that designed and implemented all structural reform such as the largest social transfer of public wealth to the poor in the form of the BISP.

“This government done **thing to increase the tax base, as it has overseen a reversal of history and progress here too by reducing the number of people who actually pay tax in Pakistan to slip under a million persons. This is actually deeply troubling for an increasingly indebted eco**my, where instead of generating resources by expanding the tax base, this government has lowered this base by its focus on regressive and indirect taxes that only burden the already taxed and the poor,” she said.

On foreign exchange reserves and debt, Sherry said that the foreign exchange stabilization the government likes to boast about is on the back of global oil price lows and overseas worker remittances, adding, “Whereas there is ** credible answer for why the accumulated total debt stock of the country has risen to a staggering amount of Rs 19.4 trillion, with mounting external debt, killing all attempts at real sovereignty or real growth."

"By borrowing at junk rates on foreign capital markets this government has indebted every Pakistani to a future of Rs 100,000 debt. This is their eco**mic miracle,” maintained the Senator.

“What answer does this government have for campaigning on eliminating loadshedding in the country, when instead of increasing electricity production and reforming transmission it has actually presided over a shocking downturn in installed capacity from 23,212 MW to 23, 201 MW in this fiscal year?" she questioned.

“Which Pakistan is it budgeting for when neither the National Action Plan gets any funds that NACTA asked for, slashing budget by 90 per cent of its ask? How does this government think rapid deployment will happen for civilian law enforcement or institutional coordination on countering terrorism and violent extremism? Is this too to be outsourced like foreign policy to an already frustrated military which is also supposed to protect against the unraveling of the CPEC which the PPP had worked so hard to make happen?" she inquired further.

PPP’s Saeed Ghani said that development schemes of small provinces should be incorporated in the PSDP to remove their sense of deprivation. He accused the government of figure fudging regarding eco**mic grooth and said Finance Minister himself conceded out of 18 targets, ten had **t been achieved and questioned then how could 4 per cent growth could be achieved.

He ridiculed the statement of Nawaz Sharif before 2013 elections, who had claimed that they had a team of experts, who would waste ** time to get engaged in fixing the issues, Pakistan was facing but charged the PML-N government had performed poorly even as compared to PPP government. He cited statistics to substantiate his contention.

He **ted during PPP rule, debt to GDP ratio was 63 per cent and it had increased to massive 66 per cent in three years of PML-N government. He added PPP did **t give any package to farmers but ensured good price of their farm produce and had e**ugh wheat, cotton, rice and other corps and farmers also were well-off at that time.

Ghani saw ** plan in the budget for 44 per cent Pakistani population, which lives below the poverty line and growing unemployment and he **ted exports had fallen as compared to PPP rule and power installed capacity had also shrunk **w.

He claimed Sindh had given 26 projects but **ne was included in PSDP, asking what message was being given to smaller provinces and claimed bulk allocations was for Punjab.

PML-N’s Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Dhandla said the government had an**unced a farmer-friendly budget. He said reduction in the prices of fertilizers and increase in agri-loans will help bring improvement in the lives of farmers.

He also appreciated the government for enhancing the budget of BISP from Rs. 40 billion to Rs. 115 billion in a span of three years. Shahi Syed of ANP said a proper mechanism should be evolved to check corruption in the country.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sirajul Haq said budget 2016-17 was neither welfare **r development oriented, adding farmers' package an**unced in the budget would **t benefit the growers but the landlords, who held major chunk of lands.

He said the government should allocate more resources for the promotion of health and education sectors. Speaking on the floor of the House, Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yusuf said it was because of the efforts of the present government that first of Ramazanul Mubarak was being observed on the same day across the country. He was confident that Eidul Fitr will also be observed on one day in the whole country. Shibli Faraz of PTI said a law should be formulated to discourage the tendency of amending budgetary provisions after passage of the budget by the National Assembly.





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