Pakistan is not charging any transit fee for supplies to Nato and ISAF forces in Afghanistan through its land routes as per previous agreement. "The 10-year old agreement exists for transit to Nato containers taking cargo for the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan," Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said while talking to media after Senate Standing Committee on Finance's meeting.
He said that it was wrong that a specific institution was taking charges ($235 per container) on containers carrying supplies for Nato. "There is a procedure for Nato supply under the 10-year old agreement with the US," he said. Sheikh said the perception that only Federal Government is getting charges on Nato containers is wrong as there are miscellaneous accounts of five governments. He said that the charges on Nato containers should not be linked only to National Logistic Cell (NLC).
To a question, the Minister said that the Federal Government took unpopular decisions. He said that tax to GDP ratio had increased. He said that political parties did not support the government for tax reforms in the parliament. Answering another question about National Logistic Cell (NLC), he said that in Monday's meeting NLC approved Rs 35 billion budget-2012-13 while its expenditure is Rs 29 billion.
Earlier, the members of the standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Planning and Development and Economic Affairs expressed resentment over the absence of Finance Minister. But, later the Finance Minister joined the meeting. The Committee met with Senator Nasreen Jalil in the chair at Parliament House on Monday. The members also expressed grave concerns over ignoring Senate Committee's recommendations in budget-2012-13. They said that Senate had forwarded 149 recommendations but only eight were accepted. While responding the members, Finance Minister said that as many as six recommendations were incorporated into the Finance Bill.
He added that 81 out of 139 recommendations were also accepted. He said that 31 recommendations were general and they were referred to concerned ministries and institutions. He said that he was ready to discuss the recommendations in details during the next meeting.
The Finance Minister also proposed that separate session of the meeting could be arranged for this purpose and committee agreed to this proposal. Answering a question, the Minister said that Rs 800 billion additional amounts were given to the provinces. He said that the committee should call the representatives of the provincial governments to discuss the expenditures of this amount.
Senator Fateh Muhammad Hassni informed the committee that in Balochistan each member of the provincial was being provided Rs 6 crore each year and during last four years some 100 billion have been provided to them, but no development work was seen on the ground. He demanded that these funds should be routed through Planning Commission to ensure their utilisation.
Deputy Chairman Planning informed the committee that law would be required to be changed in this matter. Senator Ilyas Bilour termed Coal Gasification Project as unviable and stated that national resources were being wasted on this project. He questioned that when the economic growth of the country was gaining 6 percent to 7 percent, why the Planning Commission did not plan for power generation to meet future power requirements. "Was Planning Commission sleeping at that time or it doesn't have the vision for future planning," Senator Ilyas Bilour questioned.
The Committee's members from Balochistan expressed concern that neither new projects were approved nor funds were released for ongoing PSDP 12-13 projects. In this regard, the chairperson decided to constitute a sub-committee to look into the matter which will submit its report within one month.