A day after renewed commotion and pointed fingers over Sindh's gas crisis, the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government acceded to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government's demand of giving right of way (ROW) for a new Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) pipeline.
The Sindh cabinet approved on Wednesday the allotment of land in Malir, Jamshoro and Thatta to the SSGC for the purpose, on a 99-year lease at a rate of Rs15 per acre.
The cabinet, however, maintained that it would not budge from its stance of Sindh having the first right on natural gas produced in the province and it would never settle for being supplied regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) as an alternative.
The assertion came in the wake of a PPP protest outside the SSGC office on Tuesday, where party leaders slammed the Centre, holding it responsible for gas load shedding. They handed a protest memorandum to the SSGC authorities, calling for the complete restoration of gas supply in Sindh and implementation of the Constitution.
Separately, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab also blamed the current gas crisis on the Centre's 'incompetence' of the federal government and demanded that the prime minister announce gas provision to Sindh according to its rightful share guaranteed by Article 158 of the Constitution.
On the other hand, PTI leaders had attributed the gas crisis to the halted construction of the pipeline, which was pending approval by the Sindh government.
In this regard, a PTI delegation visited the Chief Minister's House on Tuesday, highlighting the issues of low gas pressure and load-shedding in Karachi. According to PTI members, Karachi needs gas from all possible resources to address these issues.
Conceding that it was the right of the provincial government to debate the issue of weighted average pricing of gas with the Centre, they stated that in the meantime, a new SSGC line was needed. They pointed out that a request for the ROW for this was sent to the provincial government around 18 months ago.
Withholding tax
The cabinet also agreed to resume the collection of withholding tax, on the Centre's behalf, on the registration of vehicles from today (Thursday), if certain conditions were met.
Earlier, the Sindh government had refused to collect withholding tax on the Centre's behalf this year - a task carried out by the provincial excise and taxation department each year.
Announcing this decision, the Sindh government had accused the Centre of wrongly reducing the Sindh government's share from federal funds. It also accused the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of deducting sums from the provincial government's account.
It, however, agreed to conditionally resume tax collection after the FBR, according to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, admitted that it had wrongly deducted Rs5.48 billion from Sindh's funds.
Elaborating on the provincial government's conditions, excise and taxation officials said the FBR would have to reimburse Rs5.48 billion immediately, consider returning another Rs421.33 million and give assurances that no more funds would be deducted.
The Sindh government has accused the Centre of depriving it of its rightful share of funds multiple times and, in retaliation, had refused to collect tax on its behalf.
Speaking on this, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told the cabinet that in 2016, the FBR deducted Rs5.48 billion from its funds, and when the Sindh government took up the matter with the FBR, it deducted another Rs421.33 million.
"Eventually, we decided on July 1 to stop collecting withholding tax on the FBR's behalf," he said, adding that he later raised the issue with the adviser to the prime minister on finance, Dr Hafeez Shaikh, who intervened for reaching a settlement.
The cabinet meeting also decided to charge 10 per cent more than the charges listed in FBR's valuation table for the renewal of construction lease, approved compensation for Pakistan Stock Exchange attack victims and prizes for security guards and law enforcers who fought the attackers, approved the release of Rs100,000 to every police station for investigation costs, decided to release wheat between October 10 and October 15 and approved the establishment of Sindh Institute of Music & Performing Art, Jamshoro.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2020.
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