NA passes Budget 2018: Supplementary demands, tax amnesty cleared

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Friday passed Finance Bill, 2018 with certain amendments to give legal cover to Rs5.932 trillion Federal Budget amid rejection from the opposition parties as the tax amnesty scheme and supplementary demands were also approved by the Lower House.

A number of proposals given by the members during debate on the budget and recommendations of the Senate were also incorporated either fully or partially in shape of amendments but the basic structure of the budget remains as announced by Finance Minister on April 27.

The new budget, which is for the whole financial year, envisages incentives and relief for industry, agriculture and different segments of the society.

An unprecedented tax relief was announced in the budget and has been retained in the final document despite propositions made by some political parties and the Upper House to increase the tax rate. People with annual income of above Rs400,000 and less than Rs800,000 will pay Rs1,000 as token tax for the entire year and those with income of Rs8 million and Rs1.2 million would pay Rs200,000.

The budget also includes 10 percent ad hoc relief allowance to the civil and armed forces employees and 10 percent increase in pension across the board. House rent ceiling and house rent allowance have also been increased by fifty percent each.

Minimum pension has been increased from the existing Rs6,000 to Rs10,000 considering the difficulties of low paid pensioners while the family pension has also been increased from Rs4,500 to Rs7,500 per month.

Minimum pension of pensioners above 75 years of age would be Rs15,000.

The government has also allocated Rs12 billion for provision of advances to government servants for house building and purchase of transport facility. It has also set aside Rs5 billion for senior officers performance allowance, details of which would be announced separately.

Overtime allowance of staff car drivers and dispatch riders is being increased from Rs40 per hour to 80 per hour.

Non-filers of tax returns will not be able to purchase property but the limit for this purpose has been enhanced from Rs4 million rupees to 5 million.

During the budget year 2018-19, on foreign debt servicing (interest payment), the country will spend Rs229.2 billion, while on foreign loan repayment (or principal amount) Rs601.75 billion will be spent. On the domestic debt servicing, the economy will consume Rs1.620 trillion.

In a major revenue measure in the budget, the government has slapped additional petroleum levy of Rs130 billion through the Finance Bill 2018 by slapping a fixed rate of Rs30 per liter on different petroleum products.

The federal government has allocated Rs1,100 billion allocation for defence budget for the financial year 2018-2019, showing an increase of little over 10 percent from the revised estimates of Rs998 billion for the year 2017-2018 to cater to needs of the armed forces and other defence-related establishments.

The House held discussion on the supplementary demands for grants and appropriations for the current fiscal year.

Responding to the points of the opposition members, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail admitted that the foreign exchange reserves have gone down and that the current account deficit is a serious issue.

He, however, said the government had turned the tide as exports have witnessed an upsurge over the last few months. In the month of March, the exports grew by 24 percent while in April these increased by eighteen percent.

Expressing thanks to all the members of the House on passage of the budget, the minister said that the journey which the incumbent government started five years before was difficult but due to vision of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and incumbent Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Pakistan has been put on sustainable growth path.

The minister thanked the Speaker, members of the National Assembly and Senate who played very positive role during the presentation of the budget. He also thanked the staff of Finance Ministry, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and all other relevant departments for their untiring efforts in preparation of the budget.

The minister on the occasion announced five basic pays as honorarium to the employees of various departments who have performed their duties during the budget session of the National Assembly. He said these included employees of National Assembly, Senate, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), State Television, Radio Pakistan, Press Information Department (PID), Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Post, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Pakistan Railways and Wapda.

Earlier, the minister had announced four basic salaries, however changed his decision to take it to five basic pays after responding to a point raised by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq that since this was the farewell session, the minister should announce five basic pays as honorarium. The Minister assured the Speaker that the honorarium would be paid to the concerned employees before the end of the incumbent government’s tenure.

The House on Friday also approved all 127 demands of grants of Rs333,145,342,000 for the financial year 2017-18, relating to various divisions and their related departments during the fiscal year 2018-19.

Dr. Miftah Ismail moved the supplementary demands for 127 grants to meet the expenditure during the outgoing fiscal year. Responding to objections on supplementary grants, Miftah Ismail said that the borrowings were done due to fiscal deficit. He said the country’s exports increased by 24 percent in March 2018 and 18 percent in April 2018 while the imports have reduced by 2 percent.

Dr Azra Fazal of PPP while talking about supplementary grants criticised the performance of Law and Justice Department, saying that billions of rupees are being lost by the government as this department was not doing its work properly, suggesting reformations in the department.

Shazia Marri also from PPP questioned performance of various departments and questioned various expenditures the government has done during the current fiscal year.

Dr. Shireen Mazari of PTI rejected the supplementary budget saying that it was unacceptable, while Sheikh Salahuddin also rejected supplementary budget saying that it would put burden on common people.

Sahibzada Tariqullah of Jamaat-e-Islami stressed the need that the supplementary budget was violation of budgetary proposals, saying that a proper mechanism should be devised to stop this practice.

Assad Umar said that most of the supplementary budget is related to repayment of foreign debt and its debt services which puts a question mark on it.

Later the Speaker thanked all the parliamentary leaders and members of the National Assembly for their cooperation during the last five years and adjourned the session till Monday afternoon.