Fixing oil, gas prices: Senate wants government to seek parliament's approval

The Senate in its recommendations made it binding for the federal government to take approval from the Parliament before fixing the prices of oil and gas pertaining to revenue generation through 'Gas Infrastructure Development Cess and Petroleum Levy'. The Senate on Friday approved recommendations on two money bills "The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Bill, 2011 and The Petroleum Products (Petroleum Levy) (Amendment) Bill, 2011.
The government wants to generate Rs 38.390 billion during the current fiscal year through imposition of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess and Petroleum Levy. While presenting reports on behalf of Chairman of the Committee to seek consensus of the House over the incorporation of recommendations in the Bills, Ishaq Dar, of PML-N said, "We do not want to give blank cheque to the government to change or fix the prices of oil and gas on its own. We have proposed to add a proviso in schedule-1 of the Bills to make it compulsory for the government to take approval from the Parliament before fixing the prices of oil and gas."
The two reports were adopted, separately, by the House. However, Safdar Abbasi of PPP opposed them. Ishaq Dar said that these are not money bills, and their approval from the Cabinet is necessary. He said that the two bills are not money bills, but since the National Assembly has declared them as money bills, so, under the constitution the Senate cannot change the status of the bills. He said that the levy, which is being imposed, would severely affect the energy sector. He said that the government wants to generate revenue by imposing more taxes on the people, and the committee tried its level best to avoid more burden on the poor consumers.
Ishaq said, "We are supporting these recommendations because the Finance Minister assured the Committee that he would fulfil all commitments made with the members." While giving dissent note, Safdar said that the bills were introduced without approval of the Cabinet, as envisaged under rule 27(5) of Rules of Business 1973.
He said that the bills had been introduced as money bills "in complete contradiction to the actual definition of money bill". He said that money is being raised through development of infrastructure cess for the Pak-Iran pipeline, TAPI pipeline and the LNG Projects. He said that the Pak-Iran and TAPI pipelines need years to develop and their completion was doubtful in near future.
Senate Chairman Farooq Naek said that under the constitution the speaker of national assembly is the right person to declare whether a bill is money bill or not. The committee in its report recommended that the gas infrastructure development cess be chargeable from the gas consumers, other than the domestic consumers of the company over and above the fixed sale price and payable under section 3.
The two reports over the money bills were adopted and referred to the National Assembly. The Senate also passed the National Database and Registration Authority (amendment) Bill, 2010. According to the Bill, the punishment of imprisonment was increased from one year to five year if an employee of the Authority is involved in the issuance of fake National Identity Card like the officer-in-charge of that branch. The National University of Modern languages (amendment) bill, 2011 was also referred to the committee for a report within 15 days.