The country struggles to pay interest on its debt but that did not prevent a parliamentary panel from increasing perks for parliamentarians.
The Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday unanimously approved a proposal to increase parliamentarians’ air travel allowance by 100% from next month – the second special package for lawmakers in as many years.
The proposal, endorsed by Finance Secretary Abdul Wajid Rana, will be approved along with the budget, currently being discussed in both houses of parliament.
The committee also unanimously recommended reducing the period between issuance of air tickets to lawmakers, their staff and spouses, from the current 7 days to 4 days.
In June last year, parliament approved a post-retirement package for all parliamentarians including free air travel, free medical treatment and VIP protocol.
Interestingly, both packages were recommended by senators belonging to a party that claims to be representative of the middle class – the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
On the proposal of increasing the road travel allowance, the finance secretary advised the committee not to make it a part of the budget since the government was already working on a proposal to increase grade-22 officers’ travel allowance. Parliamentarians’ travel allowance will be increased soon, he added.
Earlier, the finance secretary had pleaded to the committee not to recommend increases in health and education allocations in the budget since the government is passing through “difficult times” after transferring 70% of taxes to the provinces.
“We cannot even service our debt with the leftover 30% revenues,” he had pleaded earlier.
For the next fiscal, the government has budgeted Rs1.1 trillion to repay foreign debt and interest on foreign and domestic debts.
On special perks for former presidents and prime ministers, the government appears to be facing some resistance though. After PML-N’s Senator Ishaq Dar opposed giving security and protocol to former presidents and premiers, the standing committee asked the finance ministry to give a presentation on budgetary implications of the proposal.
The committee also debated the proposal to increase employees’ salaries by another 5% to 25%.
The Adviser to Finance Ministry Rana Assad Amin, however, said the government did not have sufficient resources to even support the 20% increase in salaries that was announced by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in his budget speech.
Secretary finance Wajid Rana had informed the committee that the 20% rise in salaries would cost the govt additional Rs46 billion next year. The committee also recommended bringing old and new pensioners on a par.
The panel withdrew a proposal suggesting reducing taxes on petroleum products by 50%. The finance ministry opposed the move saying that taxes on petroleum products were much less than the taxes imposed by other countries.
Giving a selective comparison, the finance secretary said that tax rates are 65% of the total prices in France, 67% in UK, 34% in India, 40% in Bangladesh and range between 17% and 22% in Pakistan.
From June 15, the government will further reduce prices of petroleum products after a significant price reduction in the international market, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2012.
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