ISLAMABAD: With merely two days left seeing passing his third budget passed, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar renewed his call in the National Assembly on Friday to all parties to frame a `charter of economy’ on the lines of`charter of democracy’ (CoD) singed by two political parties some nine years ago.

The minister is toying with this idea for a long but while winding up a discussion on non-votable charged expenditure, he again urged the opposition parties to sit down with the PML-N and draft such a document.

“Come and let us talk over a charter of economy,” he said while defending the necessity of obtaining loans such as from the IMF during the two years of the PML-N government.

“Time has come to separate economy from politics,” Mr Dar said, adding: “Let us have a national economic plan.”

Leader of Opposition leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah of PPP, which signed the 2006 CoD with the PML-N as a charter to wage a common struggle against dictatorship and amend Constitution to restore a genuine parliamentary system said in comments after the finance minister’s speech that he wanted the government to commit to making the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) “independent”.

“This will be a big decision,” he said, without elaborating the kind of independence he wanted for the FBR, the supreme federal agency responsible for auditing and collecting revenue for the government.

Mr Shah also demanded that the government impose no new taxes outside the budget without an approval from parliament.

Although, the general debate on Budget 2015-16 concluded on Thursday with the minister announcing some major changes in his original proposals, the opposition lawmakers continued criticising the budget, government’s financial policies and some of the appropriations listed as charged expenditure that cannot be voted upon.

But contrary to apparent tension between their parties over the remarks of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari against the military two days ago, both the finance minister and the opposition exhibited usual cordiality towards each other, with Mr Dar praising Mr Shah’s understanding and Mr Shah praising the minister’s skills to justifying the budget.

A MILKY ASSIGNMENT: As a measure of his trust in the opposition leader, Mr Dar assigned Mr Shah the task of considering the dairy farmers’ demand to discourage import of dried milk powder which they say hurts local farmers and implement the promise he had made earlier.

Mr Dar acknowledged that diary farmers’ demand could not be accommodated in the incentive package announced for the agriculture sector on Thursday. However, he requested Mr Shah to take a decision in this regard which, he said, would be implemented through the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet.

Dairy farmers have been protesting against 5pc reduction on existing 20pc import duties on skimmed milk and whey powder for Saarc countries against 25pc on imports from other countries.

Mr Shah neither accepted nor rejected the assignment and rather suggested imposition of import duties also on maize and vegetables to protect local producers.

It was the second time in as many days that the issue of Mr Zadari’s remarks against alleged crossing of limits by Rangers personnel deployed in the PPP-ruled Sindh province was raised in the house by a PPP member, Nafisa Shah, though it was avoided by other lawmakers.

Parliament should “step in to say no to any institution crossing its limits”, Ms Shah said.

After the discussion on charged expenditure, out of 143 demands for grants for government divisions in the budget, the house adopted, by voice vote, 94 demands on which there was no cut motion to warrant a debate.

The remaining 49 demands, which will be debated because of cut motions moved by opposition members, are scheduled to be discussed and voted upon on Monday and Tuesday.

Published in Dawn June 20th, 2015

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