Govt to earn Rs10 bn per month through Petroleum Levy

ISLAMABAD: The government came under fire in the Senate on Monday at the hands of joint opposition for not passing on the ‘due benefit of the fall of oil prices in the world market to masses’ and instead burdening them further with massive increase in taxes.

The combined opposition also demanded of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to share details of the US-Taliban agreement, if it was completely shared with Pakistan and had Islamabad asked the US to do more for stability with transparency in Afghanistan. PPP Parliamentary leader in the House Senator Sherry Rehman decried the fact that neither the parliament nor any of its related forums was taken on board on the agreement and Pakistan’s role therein.

She insisted the House should be taken into confidence regarding the agreement and what had been Pakistan’s role and if it was made a shareholder in it. She continued many questions were being raised about the agreement in the US and President Ashraf Ghani had also raised questions.

Pakistan, she noted, had cooperated a lot and during the last 10 years, so many measures were taken for Afghan peace and the process started during the last two democratic government tenures and even President Asif Zardari had invited Hamid Karzai at his oath taking ceremony. Peace in Afghanistan was vital to regional stability and peace in Pakistan as well, she said. Leader of the Opposition Raja Zafarul Haq and JI Senator MushtaqAhmad protested over the deletion of a (Haj) form portion relating to the Finality of the Prophethood and wondered, who was running the ministry, if the Religious Affairs Minister said that it was not in his knowledge that this step had been taken. They said that though the oath form had been restored but it must be found out who was behind it.

Taking part in the discussion on the commenced motion, Senator Sherry Rehman regretted that the government had further burdened the poor citizens of this country with an extortionate increase of up to 106 per cent in petrol levy.

“It appears that by reducing petrol prices by a negligible Rs5, they were just laying the groundwork for dropping the levy bomb that will send prices of several commodities across the country soaring,” she said.

She pointed out that even the Rs5 reduction in petrol prices was inadequate when ‘we see where the global oil prices stand today, saying globally, oil prices were down by nearly 30 percent. “It is unfortunate that when international prices go up the government is quick to shift its impact on the people but when they go down, the domestic prices are so disproportionately reduced,” she charged.

“Agriculture, transport and small industries, all will bear the crippling side effects of the levy being imposed in addition to the gas and power tariffs already imposed on them. This is quite clearly an IMF-run government, incapable of protecting its citizens who have remained incessantly exposed to a vicious inflationary cycle. The government is getting businesses shut and people laid off. Is that a policy?” she asked.

She questioned, “why is the government’s policy not focused on widening the tax base and taxing the rich? So far the weight of all the additional revenue earning measures has fallen on the backs of tax-payers while the privileged few are busy profiteering from sugar and flour crisis”.

Former Chairman Senate Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said that instead of holding a news conference, the Foreign Minister should have come to the Senate to present the government position on the agreement and regretted that this government had made both the Houses redundant.

He pointed out that he had raised the issue of staffer-level agreement with IMF Friday last but the technocrat Adviser for Finance was not ready to come to the House, as to what were the details and its repercussions and added its repercussions had already started emerging.

“Nepra has asked Prime Minister for a national power emergency to be declared with circular debt swelling by a monthly average of Rs42 billion. Overall, it has reached an alarming Rs1.93 trillion as opposed to the undervalued figures being provided by the power division. This is despite the regular hikes in power tariff. On top of this a ban on labour unions is proposed in contravention of the right to freedom of association under Article 17 of the Constitution,” he argued.

Rabbani said that the newspaper had not been so far repudiated, which said that a representative of the World Bank, who was Pakistan’s representative, was also present during the meeting chaired by prime minister, saying this was like degrading the prime minister to the level of a bank representative. He noted that the imperialist institution’s representative said that the Power Division’s figures on circular debt were not acceptable to them and these were incorrect.

He continued that another demand made in the meeting was that net hydel profit of Rs35 billion should not be shared among the provinces and said that a non-elected technocrat advisor could not hold the elected representative his hostage and to come and wash his dirty linen. He emphasised the prime minister had clearly said that the entire benefit of oil prices should be passed on to consumers but the adviser prevailed upon the prime minister.

“Why should people suffer for the Rs480 billion revenue shortfall being faced by the revenue department? Plus, that’s not the only under-performing department,” he wondered. He asked was an elected Prime Minister running this country or an elected cabinet, answerable to the Parliament running this country or ‘we do have a de facto, un-elected adviser, backed by international imperialists, running the country.

PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that someone would say that if he had to go to IMF, he would prefer to shoot himself dead but thanks, he did not do so, who used to also say that Japan and Germany shared borders and it was good he did not shoot himself, otherwise, our kids would have been deprived of an expert in geography, who had said there were 12 seasons in as many months.

“It is good, he did not kill himself, we would have been deprived of faster train than the sound of light, which he was to run. If you are alive, prove it by having the tolerance to listen to criticism,” he retorted.

Senator Rashid continued that a newspaper, which had the image of the Father of the Nation, had to move a court against alleged coercive tactics of the government, which wanted to shut it while the media houses were facing acute financial hardships and many known anchorperson were missing from TV shows. The financial hardships, he noted, were resulting in loss of lives of media workers, as their salaries were being delayed. This, he noted, was the state of freedom of expression.

He said the government’s entire focus was on political victimisation of Nawaz Sharif, alleging Pervez Musharraf would say, Nawaz should not return to the country while this government wanted to put him in jail. He added the economic situation was alarming and Pak rupee was weaker than Bangladesh and Afghan currencies. He added when the economy of a country was weak, then its defence and security also become weak and these rulers had put at stake the country’s defence and security.

PML-N lawmaker said that the government would pocket Rs120 billion through petroleum levy while people would be forced to line up in langar khanas for food. He remarked, “the government is incapable. Those, who don’t know how to work and those, who know how to work, should be given the opportunity to take the country forward”.

Leader of the House in the Senate, Shibli Faraz said that the PTI government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, was committed to overcome all the challenges being faced by the country.

He said PTI had not created any new difficulty in the country as all the issues including economic crisis were inherited from the previous governments and it was working hard to rectify the situation. He said that Minister for Power would also brief the House in detail about prices of petrol and gas. He added that Minister for Foreign Affairs would also speak on the agreement between US and Taliban.

Winding up the discussion, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan blamed the past governments for the power sector crisis and said that specially the past PML-N government was to be blamed for costly power and gas agreements and artificially keeping the dollar stable by wasting away dollars 24 billion. He said that the past government had given up budgeted subsidies.

He added that the landmines spread by the PML-N government, were now exploding. However, he said the PTI government was working hard to reverse the situation and had achieved successes, including bring down circular debt from Rs41-42 billion a month to Rs14-15 billion.

Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar said the government had to take tough decisions in view of the ground situation and now things were moving towards stability and the economy would show more promising results. He referred to the industrial and agriculture growth and exports as well. He said the market-driven currency had stabilized.

He called the Orange line train project as an unviable project for which the government would have to give subsidy to keep it running. He reminded the opposition that in 2016, when oil prices had plunged to massive dollars 30 per barrel, PML-N government had increased sales tax to 56 per cent.

Hammad Azhar said that due to effective measures of the government, inflation rate had been brought down from 14.6 percent to 12.4 percent while inflation rates of non-perishable food items decreased further. He maintained owing to decrease in POL, the price of daily use items would also come down.

Earlier, quoting an American expert, PTI Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak said that 70 per cent population of the world would be affected by coronavirus and said that one could not afford to shut his eyes regarding this challenge.