Minister praises FBR's performance

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar claimed on Monday that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) achieved "95 per cent tax collection target of the first half (six months) of the ongoing fiscal year 2019-20 due to the right policies pursued by the present government."

"The FBR has witnessed a phenomenal improvement in its performance. The revenues are improving manifolds. The economy is on the right track and the credit goes to this government," the minister said. He was speaking on the floor of the House during the Senate session presided over by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

Winding up discussion on the motion raised by Kalsoom Parveen regarding the performance of the FBR during the last six months, the minister dismissed opposition's criticism that the government burdened the masses with excessive taxes but failed to raise revenue collection and improve economy.

The minister said as a result of the "prudent and wise" policies of the federal government, 2.7 million people have been brought into tax net who are tax filers now.

"We have not relied on measures like imposing heavy duties on import products. Instead, we have taken genuinely practical measures to boost tax collection," he said.

The overall tax collection witnessed 16.5 per cent increase during the present government's tenure, he said. "The domestic revenue collection witnessed 28 per cent increase. "Also, we inherited huge current account deficit which has been brought down drastically," he added.

He said earlier 50 per cent taxes were being collected from general sales tax on petroleum products which now have been slashed down to 30 per cent, he added.

However, the minister admitted that the tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is still around 11 per cent which, he said, needs to be improved.

"In the light of the decision taken in the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, tax to GDP collection would be enhanced by 15 per cent till 2015. On the contrary, the tax to GDP ratio remained 1-2 per cent during last 10-12 years," he added.

Earlier, the Senate passed two private members bills moved by opposition lawmakers. The Maternity and Paternity Leave Bill, 2018, moved by Quratulain Marri from Pakistan People's Party (PPP), had been pending in the Senate since November 2018. The Senate passed the bill amidst opposition from Dr Mehr Taj Roghani from the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

According to the bill, the employees of "every establishment shall be provided six months paid maternity and three months paternity leave as and when applied by employees, separately from their leave account, commencing from the date as applied by the applicant in the application and supported by a medical certificate. The employees shall also be provided with an additional three months optional unpaid maternity and one month paternity leave, separately from their leave account, if required by employee."

Opposing the bill, Roghani said, "Even in developed countries like the United States, the maternity leave does not exceed a month. The time period for maternity and paternity leave periods provided in this bill is too much. That's unreasonable amount of paid leave period."

Another bill passed by Senate was the Islamabad Compulsory Vaccination and Protection of Health Workers Bill, 2019 moved by Ayesha Raza Farooq from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate. It had landed in Senate in April 2015.

Appreciating the bill, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Swati said, "This is a highly appreciable bill which was first passed by the Senate in 2015. Unfortunately, the bill could not sail through Senate that time. This time, we will make sure that this bill, after getting passed by Senate, gets NA's nod and becomes an act," he said.

"The intent of this bill is to establish immunization as a norm in society through making the caregivers, health providers and heads of learning institutions of children, responsible to ensure that a child is fully protected against all diseases being covered under the country's immunization program and other interventions launched by the government in view of the incidence or prevalence of a particular disease. The bill also aims to safeguard society against propaganda that not only misleads parents and their influencers causing irreversible lifelong disability or disease to a child, besides inciting violence against health workers. The bill makes immunization compulsory for every child by involving a range of persuasive measures including pre-conditions to issuance of NADRA form-B and admission to schools, which will be granted provisionally to those not in possession of the certificate of vaccination," the draft of the bill reads. The Senate would meet again today (Tuesday).