Mini-budget: Opposition to boycott NA proceedings till new taxes withdrawn

Khursheed Shah asks govt to break ‘begging bowl’

ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties on Tuesday rejected the mini-budget approved by the federal government a day earlier and announced a ‘permanent boycott’ of the National Assembly proceedings until the government reversed all the revenue-generating measures it has taken after bypassing parliament.

After the opposition MPs boycotted the session, the treasury could not keep the house in order, forcing Deputy Speaker Javed Murtaza Abbasi, who was officiating in the absence of the speaker, to adjourn the proceedings until Wednesday. Since senior cabinet ministers had not shown up, a few treasury members present in the house could not convince the opposition to call off its protest.



Khursheed Shah, the leader of the opposition, hit out at the government for taking key decisions without any debate in or approval from parliament. “The government policies are affecting all sectors. It should focus on building a strong parliament,” he said. Only mega projects like Metro Bus or bullet train would not alleviate poverty, he added.

“Such taxes are not even imposed in European or North American countries,” he said referring to Monday’s decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to increase tax rates on a wide range of products, including imports, professional services, luxury goods, and furnace oil.

The ECC move was meant to honour Pakistan’s agreement to the IMF to meet the revised annual tax collection target of Rs2,691 billion. The additional taxes will pave the way for the IMF releasing the sixth loan tranche of $518 million.

Shah said the opposition would boycott parliamentary proceedings until the government reversed its decision. “We will organise a protest every day because the government is ignoring the parliament’s authority while taking key decisions,” he said.

Shah described the government’s revenue target as ambitious. Initially, the revenue target was Rs2,810 billion which was also termed ‘too ambitious’ by taxation experts. This is the third time in as many months the government has imposed taxes other than those levied in the federal budget for fiscal year 2015 which ends on June 30.

“While we were making a hue and cry over a hike in sales tax on petroleum products, the government levied more taxes under foreign dictation,” Shah said and lamented that the government had hiked General Sales Tax on 285-plus items on the dictation of the IMF. He advised the ruling party to break the ‘begging bowl’ as it had promised in its election manifesto.

In an angry retort, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shaikh Aftab Ahmad said the incumbent government has inherited the ‘begging bowl’ from the previous PPP-led government and it was too strong to break it easily.

Following the opposition’s boycott, lawmakers from a key government ally, the JUI-F, walked out of the house in protest against rejection of their proposed constitutional amendments. To avoid embarrassment, a ruling party MP pointed out quorum, forcing the deputy speaker to adjourn the house for the next day.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2015.