ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has urged Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif not to “back out or deviate” from the consent he had given at a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to the government's plan of imposing Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) and flood surcharge.

In a statement issued by the official news agency on Sunday, the minister rejected the chief minister's assertion that he had expressed PML-N's “reservations” on the two proposals which have been introduced in both houses of parliament as bills.

“Shahbaz Sharif knows very well that the CCI is a forum where decisions can only be made through consensus and if differences are raised by even one member the matter is referred to parliament for a decision,” Mr Kaira said.

He said decisions on both the RGST and flood tax had been taken by the CCI and the issues could not be settled by “backing out from the agreed decision and criticising the prime minister”.

Opposition by Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the RGST and flood surcharge announced after the CCI meeting has made it quite difficult for the government to get the two bills smoothly adopted by parliament and the provincial assemblies.

The chief of Awami National Party (ANP), the ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has also opposed the new taxes which he says were introduced at the behest of foreign donors and announced formation of a committee to review the issue.

PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal quoted the Punjab chief minister as saying that the flood surcharge had not been discussed at the CCI meeting held last week.

As far as the RGST issue was concerned, he said, his party was not against tax reforms, but it had reservations over the timing and mechanism being adopted by the government.

He said Mr Sharif had made it clear that the party believed that at a time when corruption was rampant, inflation was rising and there was an economic slowdown, imposing new taxes would add to the misery of the already burdened masses.

Mr Kaira said people would have listened to Mr Sharif if instead of denying his earlier decisions he had said that he had agreed to it at the CCI meeting but now wanted to review it.