Senate unanimously approves 65 recommendations on Finance Bill 2019-20

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Monday unanimously approved 65 recommendations on Finance Bill 2019-20 and 68 recommendations on Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20, containing annual budget statement, as reported by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs.

The recommendations were moved by Chairman of the committee Senator Farooq  H. Naik in the House which were adopted by the house unanimously.

The Upper House approved the recommendation of Senate body by Senator  Shibli Faraz to abolish Riba from the country’s economy at the earliest.

Meanwhile proposals by Senator Kalsoom Parveen to give 10% of basic salary  as ad-hoc relief to all federal government employees of grade 17 and above and  20% to the employees of up to grade 16.

The Senate also approved the recommendation of Senate body that ad-hoc  relief allowances of 10% for year 2016, 2017, and 2018 should be merged in  the basic pay of civil servants and armed forces.

The Senate recommended that tax rate on dividend income was 15% for individuals which was very high and it should be reduced to 10% as provided  earlier.

The Senate also approved the recommendation to give tax exemption for all salaried people, earning up to Rs 90,000 per month.

It is recommended to allow storage battery manufacturers to sell its products  for solar solutions at zero rate of sales tax to remain at par with commercial  importers of solar solutions.

The Upper House also approved the Senate Finance committee’s recommendations to allocate Rs 750 million for Naltar-Gilgit power plant, Rs 300 million for Naltar Expressway, Rs 302 million for Harpo power plant, Rs 200 million for 50-bed cardiac hospital, Gilgit, Rs 100 million for Polytechnic Institute Skardu, Rs 3.85 billion for Sewerage and sanitary system for Gilgit, Rs 2.1 billion for widening of 65 kilometer Botogah road, Chillas, Rs 750 million for Karagah energy corridor roads, Rs 2.7 billion for Medical College Gilgit, and Rs 500 million for Women University,  KIU Gilgit.

The Senate also approved the recommendation of lowering the fiscal deficit  target by 1 percent from 7.1% to 6.2% of GDP and also reduce the fiscal deficit gradually to 5% in the year 2020-21, and then 4% in FY2021-22.

The House also approved the recommendations of freezing exchange rate to  Rs 150 per USD besides fixing policy rate at 9% and making efforts to increase  GDP growth rate up to 4%.

The recommendation of Senate body to place all important debt agreements  which make Pakistan liable, such as IMF, should be placed before parliament immediately, was also approved.    The House cleared the recommendation that PSDP allocation for Ministry of  Climate Change be enhanced minimum by 15%.

The Senate of Pakistan recommended to the National Assembly that an  exemption of sales tax for three years should be granted to the brick-kilns  who are upgrading the production to environment-friendly system.

Meanwhile Senator Farooq H. Naik also laid the report on a money Bill to  provide for voluntary declaration of undisclosed assets, sales, and expenditure  (The Asset Declaration Bill, 2019).