Tax amnesty, PIA sell-off bills bulldozed through

Uproar, opposition walkouts fail to deter ruling party

ISLAMABAD: The government forced through on Thursday two legislations on amnesty for tax evaders and privatisation of the national airline despite the opposition’s protests and walkouts from the lower house of parliament.

For the most part of the session, the National Assembly was the centre of shouting and accusations between the treasury and the opposition as the two controversial bills were introduced.



Federal Climate Change Minister Zahid Hamid presented the first bill – The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2016 – inviting the ire of the opposition lawmakers.



The treasury benches said “yes” when Speaker Ayaz Sadiq sought the house’s approval with a “no” in unison from the opposition benches.

Opposition leader Khursheed Shah suggested the speaker to refer the bill to a committee for further discussion.

He referred to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s speech of January 2013 in the assembly, when he opposed a similar bill presented by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) terming it an attempt to ‘turn black money white’.

The PPP’s Naveed Qamar termed the bill giving concessions to a certain group of people ‘discriminatory’.

“The bill gives a hint to the current taxpayers that they were fools [to file their returns] because there were alternatives [like the proposed scheme] to make way without paying taxes,” he said, questioning why was the government in such haste to pass the bill in one go.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the bill was the 9th of its kind for bringing people into the tax. “The government should [first] share the reasons for the failure of the previous ones,” he said. “It is like treating a disease with the same medicine again and again.”

The PPP’s Nafisa Shah said the committee looked like a post office the way the bill was passed there. She demanded the government reform the tax system and the Federal Board of Revenue instead of giving legal cover to tax evaders. The opposition walked out when PTI’s Asad Umer was not allowed to comment on the bill.

Later the other amendments were also passed by the treasury benches, apparently to pass the bill with majority.

Around 15 minutes later the opposition members returned to their seats, opposing the amendments read out by Climate Change Minister Zahid.

PIA’s privatisation

The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (conversion) Bill, 2015, was also passed despite serious concerns of the opposition. The proposed law aims at transforming the PIA from a corporation to a corporate company.

On December 29, the Senate had repealed a presidential ordinance, which Senator Dar had claimed was only aimed at making the PIA competitive administratively.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Ali Raza Abidi said the government should inject money into the national flag carrier instead of giving it out to the private sector.

The opposition walked out again when the speaker barred them from further discussions.

During the whole four-hour session the opposition and government members kept shouting at each other.

Tax amnesty

On January 1, the prime minister had unveiled a new amnesty scheme, allowing traders to legalise their ‘black money’ by paying a nominal one per cent tax on it.

The latest income tax bill would benefit non-filers of income tax returns, as well as those who file the returns but underreport their income to evade taxes.



NA’s committee on finance and revenue had passed the draft legislation on January 15 amid similar concerns of the opposition members within the panel. The government has sought approval of the bill before January 31, the last date for filing income tax returns for the 2014-15 fiscal, which ended on June 30 last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd,  2016.