ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar came to the National Assembly on Thursday to respond to three days of protests against new taxes imposed outside the budget, including a higher General Sales Tax (GST) on petroleum products, but refused to bow to even a softened opposition agenda, provoking a fourth walkout in a row.

All opposition parties have been demanding that the government withdraw, or seek parliamentary approval of up to 27 per cent increase in the GST on petroleum products from 17 per cent -- in two instalments of five per cent each -- since December and the recent five per cent increase by the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet in regulatory duty on hundreds of importable items, including furnace oil used for power generation.

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Rejecting the opposition charge of bypassing parliament, Mr Dar said the nearly two-year-old government of the Pakistan Muslim League-N had only used powers it enjoyed under existing laws such as the Sales Tax Act of 1990s and had followed what he said had rightly been done by previous governments as well to meet revenue shortfalls, as was the case now due to a sharp fall in global oil

prices and the resulting reduction in GST revenues.

But the opposition, seeming least impressed by the minister’s argument and a plethora of figures blurted out by him, insisting that the government had better respected parliamentary sovereignty as seen after the post-2008 empowerment of parliament rather than relying on practices of a different era.

Naveed Qamar, who had been a finance minister in the previous coalition government led by the Pakistan People’s Party, said some better way out would have been found if the government had come to parliament with its fiscal measures, which he said must all be withdrawn.

However, with only another day left for the current session of the house, opposition leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah proposed a new via media: Mr Dar announce right now a reduction in the GST on petroleum products to 22 per cent (from 27 per cent) and abolition of the five per cent regulatory duty on furnace oil, or the opposition would walk out as it had done on previous three days.

Mr Dar, who had in earlier remarks said the GST would be brought down if world oil prices shot up again, cheered Mr Shah’s speech by desk-thumping without rising to speak.

That kept Shah in a confusion for a while before realising it was in effect a no to his idea and leading opposition lawmakers out of the chamber as Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq adjourned the house until 11.30am on Friday.

Published in Dawn February 13th , 2015

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