The Sindh Assembly, through an amendment in the Sindh Finance (Amendment) Act, 2007, on Friday, made applicable retrospectively from July 1, 1994 the disputed 0.5 percent "infrastructure tax" on upcountry vehicles, which earns Rs 12-13 billion annually for the provincial government.
It also unanimously carried two PPP-backed resolutions welcoming the United Nations decision to set up an independent commission for inquiring the killing of Benazir Bhutto, and reaffirming solidarity with the people of Kashmir. The session started with usual two-hour delay, at 11:35 am, and was adjourned after hurried proceedings, at 1:30pm for Friday prayers.
Leader of the House Qaim Ali Shah said that due to late start the house did not have enough time to debate the "very important" finance bill, and was passed into law within a short span of last 15 minutes. Due to late start and adjournment many people, mostly journalists, missed Friday prayers.
Qaim Ali Shah termed the amending Sindh Finance (Amendment) Act, 2007 into Sindh Finance (Amendment) Act, 2009 as "important and ambiguity-removing", saying that the move would facilitate the government to impose "the nominal" levy effectively and recover the outstanding dues. The chief minister said to enhance finances of Sindh the PPP government had imposed the infrastructure cess in 1997 without giving it legal cover of its inclusion in Sindh Finance Act.
Some parties had challenged Sindh government on the legality of the cess in High Court, which had declared the pre-2006 collections, around Rs 6 billion, as illegal and, therefore, refundable, while the post-2006 collections were termed as legal, Shah recalled while talking to journalists outside the Assembly. Sardar Ahmed of MQM said that the levy was earning Rs 12 to 13 billion annually for the poverty-stricken province.
The amendment, which says "no refund of the cess claimed to have been paid or over-paid through inadvertence, error or misconstruction shall be allowed unless such claim is made within three months of the date of payment of such cess", is likely to exempt Sindh government from the claimed refunding of Rs 6 billion it had collected during 1997 to 2006.
"The proceeds of the cess shall be utilised for maintenance and development of infrastructure and other activities ancillary thereto in such manners as may be prescribed," says the amendment. The resolution about UN probe on Benazir expressed hope that the Commission would yield expeditious results to bring the "perpetrators of this catastrophic and heinous crime" to justice.
Another resolution condemning the continued brutality meted out to the people of Indian occupied Kashmir urged the UN to act upon its resolutions aimed at resolving the decades old Kashmir issue. Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza lashed out at the opposition leader Nusrat Sehar Abbasi who, on a point of order, criticised the government for "doing nothing" to curb the ever-increasing cases of kidnapping in the province, particularly in Khairpur district.
He said that police were hotly pursuing the accused of a case in which a youth, Khalil Ahmed of Shah Faisal Colony, was allegedly abused by three women in the jurisdiction of Boat Basin police station. He said the medical report was also awaited. Stephen Asif Peter of MQM expressed concern over the recent death of three Christian youths after using unbrewed liquor, and demanded ban on the sale of poisonous beverage.
The Home Minister, and Minister for Jails Muzaffar Ali Shujra also responded to supplementary questions of the members from treasury and opposition benches during the Question Hour. Due to time restraint the speaker did not take up two agenda items the introduction and consideration of Sindh Public Procurement Bill, 2009 and Colonisation of Government Lands (Amendment) Bill, 2009, and adjourned the house till Monday, February 9, at 10 am.