Legislation: Punjab Assembly passes finance bill, five other laws

16 per cent tax imposed on services including goods transport, visa processing

LAHORE:

The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed six bills including the Finance Bill of 2015 under which the government has imposed a 16 per cent tax on various services.

Other bills passed on Wednesday were the Punjab Infrastructure Development Cess Bill,  the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill of 2015, the Stamp (Amendment) Bill of 2015, the Punjab Mass Transit Authority Bill of 2015 and the Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan (Amendment) Bill.

The services included in the tax net were transportation of goods via road and air, visa processing, public relations, accountancy, tax consultancy and corporate law consultancy, and photography and film-makers. The bill also included a tax on air travel ranging from Rs2,500 to Rs10, 000 per ticket depending on domestic and international flights. Air travel for Hajj or Umrah will be exempt from the tax.

Under the Punjab Infrastructure Development Cess Bill, exports and imports would be taxed at 0.9 per cent of total value of goods.

Earlier, eight opposition lawmakers took the floor to oppose the finance bill, in particular the imposition of taxes on goods transport and air travel.

Leader of the Opposition Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said the new taxes would further burden the people. He said the government had failed to convince the House about the need for bringing under the tax net services offered by chartered accountants and lawyers. He also criticised the tax on air travel and on property worth Rs1 million (previously not taxed).

Mian Aslam Iqbal of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said the opposition was not against the broadening of tax net. However, he said, the government should justify the new taxes before the House. Sardar Shahabud Din said the government should not expect the people of southern Punjab to pay more taxes until they were convinced that the revenue would be put to good use.

For the second time during the budget session, Dr Waseem Akhtar of the Jamaat Islami commented on the gender of Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha. He said he hoped Pasha’s experience of managing domestic finances would help her in managing the finances for the province.

Responding to the criticism, Pasha said the opposition was correct in suggesting that the poor should not be burdened with more taxes. She added that new taxes would not impact the poor.  She said the poor did not use the services of corporate lawyers or chartered accountants.

She said they also did not travel by air. She claimed that the tax on air travel would not affect air fare.

Pasha said Sindh government had been collecting infrastructure cess since 1994. She added that the cess was also in place in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She said the services sector was a provincial subject and added that negotiations were underway with the federal government on revision of the federal excise duty.

The opposition staged a walkout from the House after the passage of the finance bill in protest against legislation during the budget session.

A condemnation resolution on heat-related deaths in the country that was pending debate for two days was passed with various amendments in the absence of the opposition lawmakers.

The resolution moved by Rasheed had expressed sorrow over the deaths ‘from unscheduled load shedding’. The draft passed by the House expressed sorrow over deaths caused by intense heat wave and lauded the federal government’s efforts for increasing electricity production from 13,000 MW to 16,500 MW. It also called upon the federal government to ensure provision of electricity during sehr and iftar hours during Ramazan.

The session was later adjourned till Thursday (today) morning. The House is expected to debate the supplementary budget when it meets again.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2015.