PTI flays PML-N-PPP ‘nexus’ to pass GIDC Bill

LAHORE
The nation has again witnessed the unholy nexus of the PML-N and PPP in the parliament when both parties ganged up and passed the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) Bill 2014 to give a legal cover to the controversial Rs 140 billion tax on gas.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, this was stated by PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhary who slammed the PML-N and PPP for misleading the nation in the name of democracy. Ejaz said initially the PPP opposed the bill, but later voted for it. If this is not ‘Muk Muka’ then what else, he added. He said unfortunately the PPP and PML-N were a symbol of democracy in the country, but they had no understanding of what democracy was.
He added that it was undemocratic to pass such a controversial bill as the newly imposed Gas Infrastructure Development Cess as it would ultimately put the burden on poor masses. He said it would be a disaster for the industry, which was already suffering due to anti-business policies of the PML-N government.
Secretary General Yasmin Rashid in the statement said it was proven now that the PML-N and PPP could go to any extent when it came to tax the poor through indirect taxes. “Why is the government reluctant to introduce tax reforms and keep burdening the poor nation whose 60 percent population is living below the poverty line”, she asked. She also said Sharif Brothers, who always boasted of the supremacy of law and constitution, had rejected the Supreme Court’s decision.
She said the PPP was trying to play on both sides of the wicket but politically aware people of the country knew very well about their fixed match with the PML-N.
Information Secretary Andleeb Abbas said the insensitive and anti-poor PML-N government, despite clear instructions of the Supreme Court, first imposed the tax through an ordinance in September last year. Now they have passed the bill to give it a legal cover. She said it had become the PML-N government’s habit to extort money from the poor through indirect taxes for covering the fiscal deficit.
Ejaz Chaudhry said the PML-N government’s confession that it had failed to achieve its own set target of 5.1 percent economic growth amounted to failure of government’s economic policy. He said the only thing that was growing with the fast pace was graft and greed in the PML-N rule. Finding the right balance of economic policies remains a serious challenge for Sharif Family accountant cum country’s finance minister, he further said. Secretary General Yasmin Rashid said unfortunately Ishaq Dar throughout the year always came up with conflicting facts and fiction but at the year-end all his hard-work went vain when he missed out his own set targets.