ISLAMABAD: The government was asked in the Senate Thursday to not charge additional Rs101 billion under gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC) from public and give relief to them in view of over 70 percent fall in rates of petroleum products in global market.
Opposition senators said the government economic policies had been a total failure and they urged for appointment of a good economist to handle the national economy. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar came under fire from senators for rebuking an Ogra official in a recent ECC meeting, who opposed collection of Rs101 billion under the GIDC, and said Rs150 billion collected under this head last year should be utilised for gas pipeline laying.
The senators expressed these views during the debate on their two motions, clubbed together on depriving masses of benefits of gross cut in petroleum prices in world market and the government decision to further burden gas consumers with Rs101 billion. They alleged that the government policies were aimed at burdening the poor with more and more taxes while providing maximum benefits to the elite class and that 63 percent GST on diesel was a world record.
The government was accused of bypassing the Parliament and constitutional and regulatory bodies, including the Council of Common Interests (CCI) with regard to economic policies and oil and gas matters. Some opposition senators warned that if the rulers continued with their policies of indirect taxation and denying relief to masses instead of broadening the tax net, boosting exports and stopping spending on what they called needless orange train and metro bus projects, people could look towards the GHQ for relief, carrying placards.
The treasury lawmakers accused the opposition senators of political point scoring on the issues, which the government had inherited and which it was working to tackle, including energy crisis, security and law and order and bad economy.
The ruling PML-N Senator Abdul Qayyum while recalling where Pakistan stood at the time of 2013 elections, urged for collectively taking on the national issues. He conceded there were genuine issues, involving health and education, 58 percent population lived below the poverty line, industry was shifting to Bangladesh in the past, but at the same time he insisted that energy crisis was being effectively handled and militancy also combated to a great extent.
The senator referred to several leading financial bodies to claim that the national economy was in a very good shape today, though still a lot needed to be done. “Tables are turning in our favour and the world is watching all this,” he remarked.
He said there were issues that would have been addressed 15 years back, like strengthening the gas infrastructure and also the transmission lines, enhancing their capacity and the government was working on it. “Pakistan is today in the grip of an import lobby, as production is plunging and the economy is being run on services, resulting in joblessness, continuous fall in exports and the huge gap in balance of payment is being bridged by taking IMF loans, which in return dictates the rulers,” charged PPP’s Senator Taj Haider.
He claimed 28 gas fields had been explored in Sindh, which already was producing more gas than its need, then should it pay for a pipeline, being built for Punjab. “Sindh can produce more gas than the government intends to import,” he said.
The PTI parliamentary leader Nauman Wazir slammed the government for its flawed economic policies and its failure to reform the Federal Board of Revenue. He quoted from the Bureau’s report that its offices’ annual expenditures were Rs561 billion while it collected Rs56 billion taxes, its Faisalabad offices spent Rs527 billion and collected just Rs191 billion and Sialkot offices spent Rs240 billion and collected a paltry Rs25 billion.
Criticising the opposition lawmakers on not airing any useful proposals, the PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi claimed that the government had cut oil prices by 42 percent as compared to where they stood in 2013, gas and power loadshedding had been brought down significantly, improved Karachi situation and crushed the menace of terrorism.
The PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that by not transferring the benefit of reduced oil prices to the people, levy of Rs40 billion taxes recently and the decision to tax the poor additional Rs101 billion for building pipelines networks demonstrated the PML-N government’s lopsided economic priorities as well as its personalised style of governance.
“The government is taxing the poor through indirect and double taxation, protecting the rich unabashedly and is taking personalised decisions disregarding the institutional mechanisms of CCI, the Parliament and the regulatory bodies mandated by law,” he said.
Senator Osman Saifullah of the PPP wished the finance minister should also spare some time to be present in the House, as whenever debates were held on economic issues, he was not around. He also questioned the minister’s holding meetings with IMF officials in Dubai instead of Pakistan while foreign dignitaries continued to arrive here, including the Queen of Netherlands. He questioned the utility of foreign exchange reserves for the common man.
