Senator Raza Rabbani. PHOTO: EXPRESS
The main opposition party in the National Assembly, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday gave 25 recommendations to the government to address ‘anomalies’ in the budget.
The proposed recommendations cover issues as serious as violation of constitutional provisions.
The newly appointed parliamentary leader of PPP in the Senate, Raza Rabbani told reporters that the recommendations were prepared by party’s parliamentary group in the Senate comprising a mix of young and experienced members.
“Allocation of [federal] funds for education is against the spirit of devolution and the constitution,” said Rabbani, who stressed that after devolution, the federal government should not allocate funding for health and education.
“I had protested against my own government when it allocated funds for education and had sent a letter to the prime minister. The matter is still pending with the Council of Common Interest (CCI) where chief ministers had endorsed my stance and I hope the premier will settle the issue,” he said.
Commenting on the budget, the senator said that “unfortunately the budget was anti-working class, protecting big business and promoting crony capitalism.”
Despite the seriousness of the concerns raised by the veteran legislator, the PPP seems to be devoid of any strategy to pursue budget objections in case the government failed to consider the proposed recommendations.
“The decision of going to courts against violation of constitutional provisions in the budget or taking up the issue in the Parliament would be taken by the party,” said Rabbani. However, he added that his party’s tradition had been to take up issues at the appropriate forum instead of knocking court doors.
The Recommendations
In keeping with Rabbani’s statement that his party will now promote a mix of young and experienced leadership, PPP’s young senators Sughra Imam and Osman Saifullah Khan unveiled their party’s recommendations.
Under the first proposal, the party recommended the holding of a pre-budget session at least one month prior to the presentation of the federal budget. They also suggested that the budget of each ministry should be placed before its respective standing committees.
They highlighted that the outgoing National Assembly has already passed an amendment in rules and procedures, giving standing committees a role in budget making.
In addition, the opposition suggested that “Uncertain external revenues amounting to Rs3bilion (e.g. auction of 3G licence, Coalition Support Fund (CSF), outstanding dues from Etisalat) should not be included in the revenue receipts of the annual budget.”
The young lawmakers also took a swipe at the government’s proposed abolishment of the PM’s discretionary fund, highlighting that the allocation of Rs 115 billion in the PSDP for development initiatives without specifying approved projects was an element of discretion and contrary to government’s claim of abolishing discretionary funds.
Calling for withdrawal of amendments for salary taxation, they said that these were regressive in nature because those with gross salary incomes of Rs600,000 will see their tax liability increase by 25% while those with salary of Rs4,000,000 will see their tax incidence reduced by 18.4 %.
Other recommendations included the withdrawal of the proposal allowing banks to make arrangements to provide the FBR with
online access to their central database, fixing minimum wage at Rs 12,000, withdrawing 1% increase in sales tax, withdrawal of federal
excise duties levied on services.
The legislators also recommended that income support levy should either be withdrawn or amended as a tax and distortions in the income tax regime must be rationalised, especially in the case of capital gain tax.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 18th, 2013.
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