ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions has suggested the withdrawal of taxes on the transportation of goods in Fata’s agencies.

However, North Waziristan Political Agent Kamran Afridi said the agency is facing severe financial difficulties, and these sorts of decisions would exacerbate existing problems. Instead, he suggested allocating funds to run the affairs of the agency.

Mr Afridi said all offices were shifted to Bannu after Operation Zarb-i-Azb began in 2014.

“80pc of the infrastructure in the agency has been destroyed. The agency surgeon has been operating from a house because the hospital was destroyed. Before the military operation we used to collect annual revenue of Rs200 million and our expenditure was Rs18 to 20 million. Now, our annual revenue is around Rs2 million,” he said.

“We have been getting petrol for vehicles on credit. We requested funds from the chief of army staff and got a Rs5 million loan from the army. The process of rehabilitation has begun, but we don’t have the resources to run the [anti-polio] campaign in the area because vehicles will be hired for it,” he said.

“Moreover, the funding allocated to us is very little. In the rest of Pakistan, on average the police gets Rs445 million for each district. We receive Rs3 million annual funding. For each vehicle, we get petrol worth Rs1,000 for a whole year.”

Discussing reconstruction work, Mr Afridi said civil work has begun, 55pc has been completed and the unit commander – a lieutenant colonel – has been monitoring. He said public representatives are also involved in development work.

Earlier, Senator Aurangzeb Khan said the government has been recovering a subsidy given in the past, from the people of Fata, due to which a bag of flour costs Rs800 more than in other parts of the country.

“In the open market, the rate of a bag of flour is Rs2,800, but we get it for Rs3,600. It is unfair to the people of Fata,” he said.

Senator Taj Mohammad Afridi said not a single commodity can enter the agencies without taxes being paid to the agency administration.

“Rs25 tax is charged per bag of flour, Rs400 are changed for a carton of cold drinks. Rs3,000 are charged for a small petrol tanker and Rs5,000 for a large petrol tanker,” he said.

Committee member Hidayatullah said whenever goods are transported between agencies, taxes are paid by the people of the agencies.

The standing committee chairman, Hilalur Rehman, said the Fata Secretariat – which has a Rs350 million Lashkar Raising Fund – should support the agencies.

“It is not justified to collect taxes from the people of Fata. They should also be treated as Pakistanis who live in other parts of the country,” he said.

Senator Mohammad Saleh Shah stated that the people of Fata are treated the way “Israel treats the Palestinians”.

Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch said it was unfair that Fata residents have been playing double tax.

“In Fata taxes should be lower compared to other areas of the country, just like subsidy is given in Gilgit-Baltistan. The committee should give recommendations to withdraw taxes, and a recommendation should also be made that one fourth of the income collected from minerals from Fata should be spent in the local area,” he said.

“There was no tax in the tenure of the British, but after that, the agency administration began receiving taxes to live lavishly and give bureaucrats presents.

The standing committee recommended that taxes in Fata agencies be withdraw, and also suggested the allocation of funds to run the affairs of the agencies.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2016