Opposition comes down hard on govt’s tax policies

Censures ruling party for placing extra burden on the poor, ignoring issues of the masses

ISLAMABAD:

Opposition leaders in the Senate grilled the government on Thursday for putting extra burden on the poor through indirect taxation, particularly on gas and petroleum products, but stopped short of securing a commitment for discontinuing the practice

It was the second sitting of the ongoing session requisitioned by the opposition where policies of incumbent rulers came under discussion and a majority in the 104-member house expressed disappointment saying the government simply lacked ‘vision’.





In return, members from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) tried to justify the government’s policies by pointing out the shabby state of affairs at the time their party took over.

Senator Mohsin Aziz of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf put a question mark over the priorities of the government saying "pay attention to issues of the masses and sectors like health and education and forget the Orange train."

Saeed Ghani opened the debate by asking the government to have some mercy and spare the poor from indirect taxation whereas Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini asked for a commitment.



Farhatullah Babar of the Pakistan Peoples Party said that not transferring the benefit of reduced oil prices to the people, levying Rs40 billion in taxes and the decision to tax the poor an additional Rs110 billion for building pipeline networks demonstrated the PML-N government’s lopsided economic priorities as well as its personalised style of governance.

He said that the personalised style of taking unilateral decisions without consultation was reflected by the fact that even before the Ogra summary landed on the PM’s desk proposing Rs11 per liter cut, the PM unilaterally announced a meager Rs5 per litre cut in petroleum prices without consulting anyone.

He said that the poor are being subjected to double taxation for building gas pipelines to transport LNG from the port to Punjab for power generation without taking the matter to parliament or the CCI which will breed resentment among other provinces.



Babar pointed out, that the Sindh government had already asked the power regulator to reject Punjab government’s request for building power plants based on imported LNG, unless the issue was discussed and decided in the CCI.

Chaudhry Tanveer, Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qayyum and Javed Abbasi from the ruling party defended the government with Abbasi criticising the opposition for mere criticism sans suggestions. They also referred to Transparency International’s report that corruption in Pakistan had reduced while other leading institutions acknowledged improvements though the opposition said situation on ground was much different.

Senator Osman Saifullah from the PPP responded to Abbasi saying “take the parliament into confidence in policy making and ask the finance minister to visit the Senate.” He referred to recent visit of Queen Maxima of Netherland to Pakistan and said “what is the reason IMF delegation holds meetings in Dubai and not in Pakistan … we are not a banana republic.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th,  2016