Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources Friday informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that at present there is no shortage of petroleum products in the country. When Senator Saleem Mandviwalla and Fateh Mohammad Hassani raised the issue of petrol shortages in certain parts of the country, a representative of petroleum ministry plainly said, "PSO is importing POL products and there is no shortage of the commodity in the country".
Responding to a question about long queues outside petrol stations, he came with an interesting reply, saying it could be due to media reports as sometimes these create panic among masses. The ministry representative further stated that daily monitoring of the POL products is being carried out by the ministry and there is no shortage keeping in view the storage capacity of the POL products. The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenues, which met here with Senator Saleem Mandviwalla in the chair finalized recommendations, which would now be forwarded to National Assembly after approval by the upper house of parliament.
The committee finalized a recommendation to reduce the limit of imposing super tax from Rs 500 million to Rs 300 million to bring more individuals and companies into the tax net. During the meeting, Senator Taj Haider of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) severely criticized the Center and alleged that Sindh was not getting its due financial share in accordance with NFC (national finance commission) award and constitutional obligations.
He said the federal government had committed to allocating funds for K-4 but it was not fulfilled. He said that the condition of revenue surplus on provincial government was in violation of constitution. He proposed that in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan, the provinces may be allowed to retain the "provincial surplus" of Rs 297 billion.
Senator Taj Haider was of the view that federal government was transferring Rs 65 billion less than the due share of Sindh. The agreement for distributing gas development surcharge (GDS) was changed at the ECC level that had caused a Rs 17 billion loss to Sindh. The chief minister Sindh had written a letter to the prime minister for providing information on this subject under the right to information but no information was provided to Sindh officially, he added. On collection of Zakat, he said the federal government deducted 5 percent collection charges on which Sindh asked the government to distribute its share directly which could be done through "one click of the computer". He also said that the share of workers welfare fund (WWF) and EOBI of Sindh was also not provided fully to the provincial government.
Meanwhile, chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Bajwa told the parliamentary panel that the government is ready to consider tax incentive package for Balochistan in line with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa incentives announced in budget (2015-16). On the recommendation of Senator Muhammad Daud Khan Achakzi, Bajwa told the panel that the FBR is ready to consider a tax incentive package for Balochistan.
The committee also recommended a tax holiday on the pattern of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Balochistan. To revive the economy of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and to provide relief to people, the government has given a five-year income tax holiday on all new manufacturing units set up in KP between July 0, 2015 and June 30, 2018 and exports of perishable goods namely fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat shall be allowed against Pak currency instead of dollars effective from July 01, 2015.
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