The decision was taken at a meeting held at President Camp House in Naudero. The meeting was jointly chaired by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and MNA Faryal Talpur on Friday, sources privy to the PPP revealed on Saturday.
Another meeting is likely to be held at CM House in Karachi within a couple of days to approve the final draft of the flood-tax bill. Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Law Minister Mohammad Ayaz Soomro and adviser to the chief minister for planning and development Dr Kaisar Bengali will be attending, sources added.
Soomro said that the PPP will table the bill at the next session of the Sindh Assembly whether the MQM supports it or not.
“We will approach the MQM once again after the draft is finalised and will try to persuade [them],” he added.
“The recent floods have brought devastation to a major part of Sindh. It is therefore the duty of every well-to-do person to participate in the rehabilitation process,” said Soomro, who added that while the PPP had tried to take the MQM on board, the latter was reluctant to become a part of the project, which is being supported by the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) (PML-F).
The law minister said that he had been involved in the process of preparing the draft along with the finance minister and Bengali. The draft will soon be presented to the chief minister for approval before it is presented at the provincial assembly.
“We are going to impose the tax on the right side of the River Indus - from Kashmore to Karachi - while people living on the left side of the river will be exempted from the tax as the floods have ravaged their area,” said Soomro.
Meanwhile, opposition leader MPA Jam Madad Ali from the PML-F said that his party was supporting the flood tax as it is “a legal and affordable move” towards helping flood survivors.
“We are doing politics in Sindh on the directives of our leader, Pir Pagara, who has directed us not to create any hurdles for the PPP-led government,” he added.
Ali said that the finance minster had visited Kingri House in Karachi before Eid and had briefed his party members about the pros and cons of this tax.
ANP (Sindh) president Shahi Syed said that although the PPP had not taken his party on board about the one-time flood-tax bill, the ANP will nevertheless support the bill as it is in the interest of the province.
On Thursday, the chief minister had also informed the media at a conference in Khairpur that the flood-tax bill would be passed in the provincial assembly “within days”.
“The tax is not being imposed on the poor, only on the rich, who can easily pay this one-time [sum],” he said, adding that the tax will be imposed on people who own a residential plot of a minimum of 500 square yards as well as those growers of cotton and sugarcane whose lands were not inundated in the floods.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.
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