National Assembly passes mini budget and State Bank autonomy bill
Opposition made fiery speeches in the session but failed to stop the government to pass the bills with majority vote
The finance
bill and the SBP bill, both tabled on Dec 30, are necessary to ensure that
Pakistan’s sixth review of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility gets cleared
by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board.
The
government's amendments to the proposed bill were approved by the NA. The
government introduced changes to Clause 3 of the bill, under which small shops
will not be taxed on bread, chapattis, sheermal, naans,
vermicelli, buns and rusk. Tier one retailers, restaurants, food chains and
sweet shops will be taxed on the sale of these items.
A sales tax
of 8.5 per cent will be imposed on 1,800 cc domestic and hybrid and domestic
cars. A tax of 12.75pc will be imposed on 1,801 to 2,500 cc hybrid vehicles
while imported electric vehicles will be taxed at 12.5pc.
No general
sales tax will be imposed on a 200g carton of milk, while a 17pc GST will be
imposed on formula milk worth more than Rs500. Tax on imported vehicles was
also increased under the changes, from five per cent to 12.5pc. The federal
excise duty on all imported vehicles will remain the same.
There will
be a duty of 2.5pc on locally manufactured 1,300 cc vehicles, down from the 5pc
proposed earlier. The duty on locally manufactured 1,300 to 2,000 cc cars was
also reduced to 5pc from 10pc. A 10pc duty will be imposed on locally
manufactured cars greater than 2,100 cc.
The
government's amendments to Clause 5 and Clause 6 were also approved during the
session.
The Opposition's
amendments to the finance bill were all rejected. When voting first took place,
150 members voted in favour of the amendments, while 168 voted against them.
Upon a recount due to the Opposition's objections, there were 146 votes counted
in favour of the amendments, and 163 counted against them.
The National
Assembly is comprised of 342 lawmakers, of which the treasury benches have182 members
while the Opposition benches have 160 members.
In today's
session, 14 of the government's lawmakers are absent and 10 from the Opposition
side.
Shortly
after the session began, PPP's Shazia Marri moved a motion recommending that
the finance bill be circulated for public opinion under Rule 124 of Procedure
and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly so that it could be proven how
"anti-people" it was.
The opposition lawmakers also called for the House to debate the recommendations put forth by the Senate. PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal said that the recommendations put forth by the Senate regarding the mini-budget had not been discussed and called it an insult to the upper house of Parliament.
Voting also
took place on several amendments moved by the opposition to the finance bill
that were subsequently rejected through a voice vote.
The
opposition demanded that a physical count be conducted for some of the amendments
tabled by the opposition, including those by Mohsin Dawar and PML-N's Shahid
Khaqan Abbasi. However, the NA speaker refused under Rule 29 of Procedure and
Conduct of Business in the National Assembly.
A physical
count was later conducted on the amendments moved by PPP's Marri, with 168
lawmakers against it and 150 in favour of it.
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