LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed The Punjab Finance Bill 2015 and The Punjab Infrastructure Development Cess Bill 2015 amidst uproar from opposition benches, paving the way for the provincial government to collect tax on 10 services and 0.9pc cess from exporters and importers.

Other bills passed by the House sans opposition members were The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2015, The Stamp (Amendment) Bill 2015, The Punjab Masstransit Authority Bill 2015 and The Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan (Amendment) Bill 2015.

Opposition members soon after the passage of the finance and development cess bills walked out expressing reservations that they were not informed about four other bills during the business advisory committee meeting.

The House also passed a resolution moved by the opposition leader in the assembly that demanded the federal government ensure uninterrupted power supply at Sehr and Iftar timings. The treasury benches expressed condolences on hundreds of heat-related deaths in Karachi and interior Sindh.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rana Sanaullah had to move the resolution after opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed walked out.

As Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus-Pasha moved the draft finance bill soon after the start of session, Rasheed, on a point of order, deplored the Punjab government had ignored the masses in the financial bill. He said 16pc general sales tax on goods transportation would bring a fresh wave of inflation while professionals such as charted accountants and lawyers would receive 16pc tax from visitors who would face more financial hardships as a result. He said the finance bill would aggravate sufferings of the common man rather than providing any relief.

He also condemned the government for imposing tax on air tickets, saying travellers would start getting tickets from outside Punjab. He questioned the finance minister as to how the provincial government could extend relief to the poor when it had waived off concession on sale and purchase of property up to Rs1 million.

“It appears that the government is not going to spare even those who deal in two to three marla property,” Rasheed said.

Mian Aslam Iqbal, Dr Waseem Akhtar, Qazi Ahmad Saeed, Arif Abbasi and Dr Nosheen Hamid also raised their voices against imposition of new taxes on citizens. They said the government had paralysed all those institutions that could question the government about billions of rupees collected under multiple taxes.

Opposition members said the government was imposing tax on media houses to control them as well as bringing photographers into the tax net. They alleged the government spent tax money collected from south Punjab in Lahore.

Dr Ayesha responding to the reservations by opposition members said the government was taking several for the welfare of people steps through the budget. She said the opposition was talking about service delivery that was not possible without collecting funds from different segments of society.

She explained that tax rate was not being increased in the budget, but the government was only focusing on taxing those individuals and sectors who “deliberately” skipped taxes in the past. Citing examples, the minister said charted accountants and tax consultants did not provide ordinary services.

She justified the imposition of IDC in Punjab, saying Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments were already collecting the cess to generate income. She said small taxpayers had been given relief.

When the finance minister moved the draft IDC Bill 2015, opposition leader Rasheed again hit the government hard by saying the example of Dogra rule of Kashmir had been set in Punjab. He said the government was not focusing on bringing 2.6 million people, including investors, businessmen and richest, in the tax net, but rather squeezing the poor. He said goods transporters were already paying 16pc tax and now imposition of IDC would open new avenues of corruption.

Speaker Rana Iqbal approved both the bills by majority of vote amidst slogans by treasury and opposition members against each other’s leadership. The speaker adjourned the session till 10am on Thursday (today) to initiate debate on the supplementary budget.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2015

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