A parliamentary panel on Tuesday expressed resentment over continued collection of various taxes in the tribal districts despite a commitment made with the people that the erstwhile FATA will be exempted from taxation for five years.
The Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), which met with Senator Taj Mohammad Afridi in the chair, also expressed displeasure over the proposed taxation in coming budget despite the fact the people of tribal district are yet to recover from the situation imposed over them due to prolonged war against terrorism.
The committee had sought a detailed briefing from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on the status of various taxation in the tribal districts in wake of merger of the formerly Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. However, the FBR officials sought further time for updating the panel on the taxation matter.
Committee member Aurangzeb Orakzai pointed out that people of the tribal districts are still paying taxes under various heads despite that they were promised exemptions at the time of the decision to merge the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"The merger was aimed at bringing the tribal people at par with rest of the country, not for the reason to further push them to backwardness," he said, adding that the people are yet to recover the losses they had to face due to the war on terror but the government is again taking further taxation measures.
Briefing the committee, officials of the Tribal Areas Electric Supply Company (Tesco) said that there are some Rs 2 billion outstanding against the people of tribal districts in terms electricity bills, adding that Tesco cannot move forward in addressing the issues of load shedding in these areas until the previous arrears are settled.
They said that Tesco is facing problem due to these outstanding amounts which are mostly against the government departments.
About the load shedding schedule during Ramazan for the tribal districts, the committee was updated that a mechanism for load management has been devised under which the tribal districts will only be provided 8 hours - four hours during Sehri and four hours during Iftar - electricity a day.
The committee was further told that Tesco is ready to supply 24 hours electricity to the tribal districts if the issue of electricity billings is addressed.
About giving relief package to farmers in the tribal districts, the committee instructed Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) to come up with the correct figures and submit their separate reports to the committee in its next meeting.
The committee also discussed the issues of salaries within the government-run Governors Model Schools in the tribal districts. The committee was told that the government has released Rs 1.20 billion to clear the salaries of the teachers of these schools.
Comments
Comments are closed.