LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed the Finance Bill 2017 with a majority vote, but not without a formal protest from the Opposition and its token walkout, and the House losing the quorum.

Rumour had it that the chief minister was arriving; even the ministerial security detail was manning the gate. But, eventually, he never showed up, only proving the Opposition’s allegation that the Treasury was using reports of his arrival to coax members to stay in the House. Otherwise, it would have been hard to meet the required strength.

To the Opposition’s surprise, the new Finance Bill supposedly included “27 amendments” and some fresh taxes.

Dr Waseem Akhtar was precise when he stood up to oppose the bill. “Admitted that rules permit the Treasury to insert amendments, but it is also a fact that the process was non-transparent. When democratic institutions are working, why go for such back door processes? If the Treasury wanted some changes to the tax structure, as it claims it does, why not bring a fresh bill to the House? Thrash it at the committee level, discuss it in the House, let the Opposition support or oppose it and move amendments and so on. Why use back channels? It first claimed credit for a tax-free budget, and now inserted new taxes into the finance bill. These 27 new amendments not only impose new taxes but empower the bureaucracy to categorise any areas as urban or rural. If the bureaucracy has to do it, then what is the House for? Even more so, what are local bodies for, which are supposed to provide basic amenities according to categories?”

The Treasury, however, was emphatic when the provincial finance minister, on a point of personal explanation, stood up to clarify: “The document does not include new taxes; some of them have been lumped together to facilitate taxpayers: to let them pay at one point instead of three or four different windows. The aim is to simplify, abolish, rationalise and merge certain taxes and duties in the province. If the effort is being read as new taxes, it needs to be reconsidered as just an effort to rationalise the tax structure.”

The debate took a new turn when leader of the Opposition, Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, stood up to support his colleagues, saying that their valid points were being ignored. As a mark of protest, the Opposition staged a token walkout. Within a few minutes, Nabila Hakim Ali returned to the House to point out quorum.

The chair ordered ringing of the bells for five minutes – sending chief whip Rana Arshad scrambling out to successfully bring in more members. After five minutes, the required numbers were met and the House moved on to quickly completing the agenda.

Only a few Opposition members returned to the House as it voted on the Finance Bill, introduced the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children (Amendment) Bill 2017 and the Punjab Education Standard Development Authority Bill 2017.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2017