The Senate was informed on Tuesday that the federal and provincial governments have spent Rs4.842 trillion since 2012 to achieve millennium development goals (MDGs) by improving water supply, education, health, sanitation, social welfare and population planning.
During the question hour, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal said in a written reply while answering the question of Senator Nisar Muhammad Khan that the federal and four provincial governments had spent Rs220.3 billion on water supply and sanitation, Rs2, 672.7 billion on education, Rs996.5 billion on health, Rs503 billion on population planning and Rs902.5 billion on social security and welfare.
On its part, Punjab provincial government spent Rs108 billion on water supply and sanitation, Rs1066.7 billion on education, Rs438.9 billion on health, Rs16.2 billion on population planning and Rs11.5 billion on social security and welfare.
The Sindh provincial government spent Rs31.9 billion on water supply and sanitation, Rs525 billion on education, Rs234.4 billion on health, Rs16 billion on population planning and Rs112.5 billion on social security and welfare.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spent Rs37.5 billion on water supply and sanitation, Rs465.8 billion on education, Rs128.1 billion on health, Rs4.7 billion on population planning and Rs6.6 billion on social security and welfare.
Balochistan spent Rs36.8 billion on water supply and sanitation, Rs178.1 billion on education, Rs66.8 billion on health, Rs13.3 billion on population planning and Rs5.4 billion on social security and welfare.
The Senate was told that the areas list has been finalised with regards to the national census and the whole country has been delimited in 458 census districts, 3,307 census charges, 20,631 census circles and 1,688,172 census blocks.
In a written reply to a question by Muhammad Talha Mehmood of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said that training of master trainers of the armed forces has been completed while census material has been supplied to provincial/regional/field offices.
He noted that as per the Council of Common Interests (CCI) decision, the 6th population and housing census would be held from March 15, 2017 and be completed within two months in two phases and the field operation of both the phases would end by May 25, 2017.
Replying to questions on behalf of the finance minister, Law Minister Zahid Hamid said that persons having no CNICs would also be enumerated during the exercise, as PPPP Senator Mukhtar Dhamra noted that in a recent briefing to a committee meeting, it was revealed that some 30 per cent people in Sindh are without CNICs.
The minister promised to convey PkMAP Senator Sardar Azam Musakhail's concern to the finance minister that the provincial census commissioner is a controversial figure and is not acceptable to the PkMAP.
To another question, Dar said that during the last three years, five transactions were completed, which fetched gross sale proceeds (GSPs) of Rs172 million. The transactions included divestment of 19.8 per cent equity of UBL (241921931 shares), with Rs38,224 million GSPs, divestment of up to 5 per cent government of Pakistan's shares in Pakistan Petroleum Limited (70.05 million shares) with Rs15,342 million GSPs, divestment of 11.46 per cent equity of ABL (131,275,073 shares) with Rs14,440 million GSPs, divestment of 41.5 per cent equity of HBL (609,317,135 shares) with Rs102,365 million GSPs and privatization of National Power Construction Corporation (88 per cent government shares i.e. 1,760000 shares) with Rs2,499.2 million GSPs.
Speaking on behalf of Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Zahid Hamid made it clear that complete transparency was ensured while brushing aside the possibility of ignoring higher bid for HBL shares, as claimed by Senator Talha Mehmood who said that far higher offer was ignored. The minister assured that the matter would be probed if the senator shares credible evidence in this context.
Senator Mohsin Aziz of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) questioned the role of the Privatization Commission while the shares are being divested.
The minister said that the net profit after payment of taxes of 34 commercial banks in 2013 was Rs115,762 million, in 2014 it was RsRs163,577 million and in 2015, it was Rs193,115 million.
Dar told the Senate that FBR has been pursuing 100,000 new tax-payers every year since tax year 2013-14 and 100,019 notices were issued to persons, who were liable to file income tax returns in the tax year 2015-16. "Till date, the FBR has collected Rs3.1 billion from the newly-enlisted tax-payers," he noted.
Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi said that Pakistan's engineering sector share in total exports remained in the range of 4-5 per cent during the last ten years while its share in global engineering exports was about 0.0151 per cent during 2015.