ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has asked the Ministry of Finance to prepare a working paper on the proposed amendment bill regarding supplementary grants in order to minimise the misuse of funds.

The body, headed by Chairman Senator Farooq H Naek, directed the Special Secretary Finance Mohsin Mushtaq Chandna to submit the framework within 15 days to Upper House Standing Committee.

The committee reviewed in detail Senator Sherry Rehman’s proposed amendment regarding supplementary grants, who said that billions of rupees are being misused under this pretext. Therefore, a change in Article 84 of the constitution is necessary and supplementary grants should be approved by the National Assembly.

Briefing the committee, Chandna said the government had reduced the supplementary grants in 2018-19, when only one worth Rs240 million was given while in the next year, Rs20m was released. Now, additional grants will be issued to deal with coronavirus, he added.

Naek continued that the intervention of parliament was necessary with regards to the budget.

Senator Mohsin Aziz said that in case of emergency, it is not possible to spend the supplementary grant with the approval of parliament while Senator Mir Kabir Ahmad Mohammad Shahi complained that the provincial quota in the finance ministry and its subsidiaries has not been fully implemented. “The people of our area have been given less seats,” he noted.

Commenting on the issue, Naek said that in the next meeting, the secretary establishment should brief as to why any province has been given less seats and what steps have been taken to meet it. The details should be provided within a month, he said.

Senator Musaddiq Malik said that quota data of other provinces including Balochistan should also be provided.

Meanwhile, Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi said that during the PML-N tenure, tribal people were promised that after the amalgamation of Fata into the KP province, these areas would be exempted from taxes till 2023 and new industries would be set up for development.

This will also provide employment opportunities and this standing committee of the upper house had also passed a resolution in this regard but now federal excise duty (FED) has been implemented for the last several months which has pushed away people from setting up new industries.

FBR officials told the committee that if the duty was not imposed, factories from outside would start setting up in Fata. However, tax officials avoided to share revenue amount raised from the FED.

Members of the committee said there should be no objection to the relocation of industries from other areas to Fata. Senator Mohsin Aziz said the package of duty and tax incentives was approved without any preparation at the time of integration.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2020